THE PENTATEUCH VINDICATED, 



THE PENTATEUCH VINDICATED 



OBJECTIONS AND MISREPRESENTATIONS 



BISHOP COLENSO. 



REV. PETER DAVIDSON, D.D., 

MINISTER OF UNITED PKESBTTEEIAN CHURCH, QUEEN STREET, 
EDINBURGH. 



EDINBUEGH: ANDEEW ELLIOT. 

LONDON: HAMILTON, ADAMS, & CO. 
1863. 



& 







I^V] 



PREFACE. 



The following lectures, being intended for audiences 
composed of different classes of the ordinary hearers 
of the Gospel and readers of the Bible, were neces- 
sarily confined to the discussion of general principles, 
and of such broad views of the matters introduced 
as could be clearly expounded to such audiences. 
The author neither attempted to review all Bishop 
Colenso's objections to the historical truth of the 
Pentateuch, nor to enter into all the details of 
any of them. His object was to consider the most 
formidable, to expose the false principles on which 
these were founded, and to unfold the spirit of the 
whole of this extraordinary crusade against the inspi- 
ration and authority of the Word of God. He was 
convinced that this is hoth the safest and the most 
effectual way of meeting such an assault on the Bible. 
For if the principles on which it is conducted can be 



vi Preface. 

shown to be false, there can be little necessity for 
intermeddling with minute details ; and if these prin- 
ciples cannot be shown to be false — if they are sound 
principles — then to criticise details can be of little 
use. In the Appendix, however, the author has sup- 
plemented the discussions contained in the lectures 
by some additional notes and illustrations. 

It has been alleged that Bishop Colenso's book 
hardly deserves an answer ; for had it not been the 
book of a bishop, it would have produced no impres- 
sion whatever. In so far as this allegation is true, it 
answers itself; for if the book be injurious because 
it is the work of a bishop, then for the same reason 
it ought to be answered. But the allegation is not 
altogether true; for, unquestionably, though the same 
or similar objections to the authenticity and inspi- 
ration of the Pentateuch have been often before 
published, they were never before set in so im- 
posing and startling forms, and, especially, were never 
before accompanied with such specious assumptions 
of regard for the Truth, and devotion to the God of 
Truth, as in this instance. 

It is impossible to read Bishop Colenso's book with- 
out having the question irresistibly pressed upon the 
attention, What could be his aim or object in pub- 



Preface. vii 

lishing the infidel sentiments which it contains 1 
And what, especially, could his object be — consider- 
ing him as a Christian man and minister, and anxious 
to be still regarded as such? It is said in the 
following lectures that his aim appears to be inscrutable. 
And this is true, reasoning on ordinary principles — 
such principles as commonly actuate Christian men 
and ministers of the Gospel. But Eishop Colenso 
has some extraordinary principles, and it is from the 
consideration of them that the object of his book is 
most likely to be ascertained, so far, at least, as reli- 
gion is concerned. 

One of his principles appears to be, that while there 
is no such thing as supernatural revelation, at least of 
natural and historical facts, there is what may be called 
natural inspiration — an operation of the Spirit of God 
in the understandings and hearts of good men, origi- 
nating noble and true thoughts and aspirations, and 
making them thus the guides and teachers of the 
world. ' These inspirations can be embodied in a fable 
as well as in a true history ; and the historical truth 
of the Pentateuch, or of any part of the Bible, becomes 
therefore a matter of no importance. Though not 
historically true, the Bible still conveys the good 
thoughts of good men of former times, and is "to be 
reverenced as a book, the best of books, the work of 



viii Preface. 

living men like ourselves — of men, I mean, in whose 
hearts the same thoughts were stirring, the same hopes 
and fears were dwelling, the same gracious spirit was 
operating, three thousand years ago." In this way 
the Bible is to be valued and studied, not as a divine, 
but a " human book," giving us thus, indirectly, " re- 
velations of the Divine will and character," and 
occupying the same platform with the "noble words" 
of Cicero, or the inspirations of Sikh Gooroos, and of 
the worshippers of Ram.'* 

Another of Bishop Colenso's principles, or ruling 
sentiments, undoubtedly is an exaggerated or confused 
idea of the power of Reason in matters of religion. 
This is to be recognised in his book on the Pentateuch, 
in his frequent references to the Truth, and the power 
of Truth, by which he means not what God says in 
his Word, but what he, the Bishop, thinks, on any 
particular subject. But it is in his Commentary on 
the Eomans, that this sentiment is met with most 
fully developed. In a curious passage in that work,t 
we have Beason, or the natural conscience in man, first 
spoken of as "a power to see what is revealed, un- 

* " Bishop Colenso on the Pentateuch," Prefaces passim ; 
Concluding Remarks, Part I., pp. 1M-157; Part II., pp. 
380-384. 

t Pp. 208, 209. 



Preface. ix 

covered to our eyes," in the Bible. A few sentences 
further on, this power to see becomes a God-given 
u Light of the inner man to be the very guide and 
polestar of our lives ; " and then, a page still further 
on, it is transformed into a Divine Law, by which all 
the dictates of Scripture are to be judged, and either 
approved or condemned : " He that sitteth upon the 
throne judging righteously, has set His own Law to 
be a Law of Life within the heart of every man. 
Whatever contradicts that Law, whether it be the 
word of man, or the dictum of a church, or the sup- 
posed teaching of Holy Scripture, cannot, ought not, 
to be a Law for him." Now, no doubt, in a modi- 
fied sense, were man's reason uninjured, this would 
be true ; but broadly and indefinitely taken, how 
deceitful, and destructive of all the authority of 
Divine Eevelation must this principle be ! It leaves 
no room for supernatural revelation at all. Human 
reason is made the sole Judge and Dictator of Truth, 
and God himself must be whatever pleases it — this 
more than " deified it." 

Another of Bishop Colcnso's remarkable principles, 
which seems to have a good deal to do with his 
assault on the Pentateuch and the whole Bible, is his 
doctrine of the universal justification of mankind. 
This is brought out partially in his book on the Pen- 



x Preface. 

tateuch, but more clearly in his Commentary on the 
Eomans. Without holding anything like a proper 
atonement for sin — a satisfaction to Divine justice, — 
the Bishop undoubtedly holds that all men from the 
beginning of time have been made righteous in Christ, 
and are safe for eternity. The righteousness of God, 
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, is 
upon all who don't believe, as well as upon all who 
do* If any ask, What, then, is the use of the Gos- 
pel or of faith ? The Bishop would answer, ' That 
they are good for enabling us to realize this justifica- 
tion and enjoy it in the present life \ but they can 
make no difference in the life to come. All shall 
then be accepted, but, at the same time, all shall have 
to undergo a purgative chastisement from their lov- 

* In his comment onKom. iii. 23 (24), the Bishop says, "As 
he (the apostle) has just said that all sin, and all come short 
of God's glory, so now he must mean that all are made right- 
eous, justified, freely by God's grace." Afterwards hesitating, 
apparently, as to the propriety of making the apostle's words, 
all who do believe, to include all who don't believe, he adds, 
" The apostle's words in this verse most probably mean this, 
because he afterwards (vv. 15-19) fully and explicitly states 
it, namely, that the justification here spoken of extends to 
all, to those who have never heard the name of Christ, as 
well as to Christians. It is certain that in this latter passage 
he is speaking of the whole human race." N.B. — Though 
we have quoted the above sentences as they stand, the cita- 
tion {yv. 15-19) seems to be a misprint for chap. v. 15-19. 



Preface. xi 

ing Father's hand, of few stripes or many stripes, 
according to the degree in which they obeyed or dis- 
obeyed the light which they enjoyed in this life.' — 
Such, in few words, appears to be the Bishop's theory 
of salvation by Christ ; and the inference from it 
seems a fair one, that even to the true believer in 
Christ, the sincere but imperfect Christian, the pos- 
session of the Scriptures and the faith of the Gospel 
may turn out to be a curse rather than a blessing, — 
subjecting him to a heavier punishment, more stripes, 
hereafter, than if he had never heard of " the glorious 
Gospel of the blessed God." 

This doctrine, however strange, will be greedily 
drunk in, we doubt not, by multitudes, seeing it does 
away with all fear of endless punishment, and replaces 
Christianity with what may be called a modified hea- 
thenism. But for its establishment, all faith in the Bible, 
as an authoritative and infallible revelation of the mind 
and will of God, must evidently be removed out of the 
way. The doctrine cannot stand for a moment in the 
face of such authoritative statements as these : " He 
that believeth on the Sen hath everlasting life ; and 
he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but 
the wrath of God abideth on him. If ye believe not 
that I am he, ye shall die in your sins ; and whither 
I go ye cannot come. How shall we escape if we 



xii Preface. 

neglect so great salvation'? The Lord Jesus shall 
be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, 
in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know 
not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord 
Jesus Christ ; who shall be punished with everlasting 
destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from 
the glory of his power.""" 

Taking these principles of Bishop Colenso, and the 
other well-known principles of the Theological party 
with which he is connected, into view, it can hardly 
be doubted that his book on the Pentateuch is a bold 
stroke designed to change the religion of England, 
or the Church of England, into a modified — a sort of 
Christianized — heathenism, in which " the foolishness 
of the Cross " shall be replaced by " the wisdom of 
men," and all that in the religion of the Bible is offen- 
sive and burdensome to the natural heart, exchanged 
for what will be either gratifying or tolerable to it. 
No doubt the Bishop thinks that "he is doing God 
sendee " in aiming at such a result, — and this seems 
to be what he refers to in such passages as the fol- 
lowing : " I trust that, as ministers of God's truth 
and God's message of love to mankind, we shall be 
able, before long, to meet the Mahomedan, and Brah- 

* John iii. 36 ; Heb. ii. 3 ; 2 Thes. i. 7-9. 



Preface. xiii 

min, and Buddhist, as well as the untutored savage 
of South Africa and the South Pacific, on other and 
better terms than we now do, and no longer feel our- 
selves obliged to maintain every part of the Bible as 
an infallible record of past history, and every word as 
the sacred utterance of the Spirit of God." * 



But in order to this religious result, and more im- 
mediately, there is another, and a somewhat political 
object, which Bishop Colenso's book has in view — 
namely, to get the constitution of the Church of Eng- 
land so altered as to permit the continuance and the 
growth, within her pale, of the theological party to 
which the Bishop belongs. He would have the galling 
fetters of the Church's creed and formularies relaxed 
or removed, so that he and others of like senti- 
ments might still eat her bread, and enjoy her dig- 
nities, without being so painfully self-convicted of 
inconsistency, and dishonesty, or even perjury, as 
they cannot but feel themselves to be. This object 
is plainly avowed by the Bishop over and over again, 
and "the English laity" are earnestly entreated to come 
to the rescue of the Church's ministers, and the de- 
fence of what are called "their own religious liberties." 
Witness the following appeal : — 

* Part I., Conclud. Rem., p. 150. 



xiv Preface. 

" If the arguments here stated can fairly be set aside, most 
gladly will I acknowledge my fault before the Church, and 
submit to the just consequences of my acts. But, if they 
shall appear to be well founded and true, I appeal once more 
to the English laity to look to their own religious liberties, 
and the interests of the truth, and to set on foot such mea- 
sures as may seem best, for obtaining, through the action of 
Parliament, on whose decisions the system of our National 
Church depends, such relief for the consciences of the clergy 
as shall give room for the free utterance of God's truth in 
the congregation, instead of the worn-out formulas of a 
bygone age. Can we not trust God's Truth to take care of 
itself in this world ? Must we seek, in our ignorant, feeble 
way, to prop it up by legal enactments, and fence it round 
by a system of fines, and forfeitures, and church anathemas, 
lest the rude step of some 'free inquirer' should approach 
too near, and do some fatal injury to the Eternal Truth of 
God? Have we no faith in God, the living God? And do 
we not believe that He himself is willing, and surely able as 
willing, to protect His own honour, and to keep in safety the 
souls of His children, and, amidst the conflict of opinions 
that will ever be waged in this world in the search after 
truth — which may be vehement but need not be uncharitable 
— to maintain in each humble, prayerful heart, the essential 
substance of that Truth, which maketh wise unto salva- 
tion? "—Part II., Pref., p. 35. 

Now the latter half of this appeal is powerful and 
irrefragable as an argument against all civil establish- 
ments of Christianity. It could not have been more 
pointedly or forcibly put by the Liberation Society 
itself; and it would be interesting to know what 
reply to it, in this aspect, the "evangelical" friends 
of a State Church would now give. Eemembering 



Preface. xv 

the history of the last thirty years, and hearing the 
language of infidelity from the very pulpits, and pro- 
fessorial chairs, and Episcopal thrones, of the Church 
of England, can they any longer confidently plead for 
the National Church as a necessary bulwark against 
Popery on the one hand and infidelity on the other ? 
It is to be hoped that they will not. 

But, as a reason for releasing the clergy of a State 
Church from their ordination vows, the Bishop's appeal 
has no force whatever. The clergy have the means 
of release in their own hands. If they can no longer 
preach the universally understood — the commonly 
avowed — doctrines of the Church's creed, they have 
but to go out in order to be free. Or if they think a 
State Church unnecessary, let them seek the sever- 
ance of the Church from the State, and they will 
obtain the same freedom. Let the Church of England 
cease to be a national institution, supported by na- 
tional property, and the clergy and laity belonging 
to her may make her creed and formularies what 
they please. But so long as she is a State Church, 
why should " faith in God, the living God," lead the 
English laity or the British nation to release her 
clergy from obligations, voluntarily undertaken, to do 
the work for which that Church exists, and which 
common honesty prescribes to them? Why should 



xvi Preface. 

confidence in God's Truth induce that nation to hon- 
our and support a set of men to fight against that 
which, not only the nation, but these men themselves 
have solemnly avowed, and still continue by their 
position to avow, to be God's Truth ? Surely this is a 
demand a little too extravagant to be listened to for a 
moment. — Such, however, is the political object which 
Bishop Colenso's book has avowedly in view, and it 
goes far to explain what would otherwise be inex- 
plicable. 

It does not belong to the author of this volume to 
say what ought to be done by the friends of the Bible 
and of Bible Truth in the circumstances. He has 
endeavoured to refute the principles of Bishop Col- 
enso's book, and he has, in doing so, borne testimony 
also against the inconsistency and ignominy of Bishop 
Colenso's position. It belongs to others to say what 
is to be done with the Bishop himself. Most cer- 
tainly he, and others like him, cannot be allowed to con- 
tinue in their present position without most disastrous 
consequences, both to the religion and morality of the 
nation. But what is to be done, and who is to do 
it % The courts and dignitaries of the English Church 
seem to be powerless. They cannot do what the 
meanest or most despised dissenting church or con- 



Preface. xvii 

gregation can easily do. Shall we look to Parliament 
for a remedy 1 Parliament would be both indis- 
posed and incompetent to the task. And even the 
great body of the nation seems to be so apathetic as 
to give little hope of its being roused to exertion in 
defence of the cause of truth and righteousness. 
Under God there is but one quarter from which it 
seems possible for help to come ; and that is from the 
friends of the Bible and of Bible truth within the 
pale of the Church of England. They, with God's 
blessing, could possibly rectify what is wrong ; 
and surely if they could, they are bound by their 
own principles and honour to do so at any sacri- 
fice. And how 1 Simply by leaving a church in 
which they cannot longer remain without being " un- 
equally yoked with unbelievers," and becoming the 
main supporters of avowed infidelity. If they can- 
not sever such men as Bishop Colenso from the 
Church of England, then they should — they must, 
for the Truth's sake, sever themselves. No doubt 
this would be a great sacrifice — greater, perhaps, in 
many points of view, than onlookers can easily under- 
stand ; but is it too great a sacrifice for the Truth to 
demand — for the interests of pure religion in Britain 
to demand — for Christ himself to demand of them 1 
Surely not : it is no greater sacrifice than Christ and 



xviii Preface. 

his cause have often required ; and it might, as in 
other cases, turn out in the end to be no sacrifice at 
all, but a source of honour, and strength, and joy. 

But, be the sacrifice what it may, are they not 
morally pledged to make it? They have requested 
Bishop Colenso to resign ; and does not that prove 
a deep conviction on their part, that they and lie 
cannot honourably remain longer together — cannot 
longer serve at the same altar, or be partakers of 
the same table? They may depend on it that on- 
lookers will so judge; and if they fail to act in 
accordance with their convictions (in whatever way 
Providence may shut them up to do so) they will do 
a thousand-fold more injury to the cause of the 
Eedeemer, and of the Bible, in this land, than 
all the books which Bishop Colenso or men of his 
stamp can possibly write. May the grace of the God 
of Truth preserve them from such a disastrous failure ! 



33 Warriston Crescent, Edinburgh, 
Martfi 25, 1863. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Preface, ..... v.-xviii 

LECTURE I. 

Eevelatiok xvi. 15. 
Introductory Remarks — Bishop Oolenso's First Volume on 
the Pentateuch, &c. — Position assumed by him in opposi- 
tion to the Testimony of Jesus Christ — His qualifications 
for maintaining this position, as judged of from his book, 
and especially from his charge of iniquity and cruelty 
against one of the Laws of Moses — Conclusion, . . 1 

LECTURE II. 

Johh v. 46, 47. 
Scripture difficulties — Sources of Scripture difficulties — Diffi- 
culties in the Pentateuch — Number of the Israelites at 
the Exodus — Number of the First-born compared with 
the number of Adult Males — Number of the Israelites 
compared with the Extent of the Promised Land — Con- 
clusion, . ■ . . . . 29 

LECTURE III. 

Psalm xviii. 30. 
Institution of the Passover — Preparations for the Exodus — 
The Exodus— Sheep and Cattle of the Israelites in the 
Desert — The Assembly of the Congregation — The Israel- 
ites armed — Conclusion, . 62 



xx Contents. 



LECTURE IV. 

Numbers xii. 7, 8 ; Hebrews iii. 5, 6. 
The Genealogies of Scripture — The Family of Judah — The 
War on Midian — Origin of the War on Midian — Con- 
clusion, ....... 100 

LECTUEE V. 

Exodus vi. 2, 3. 
Bishop Colenso's Second Volume — His theory of the Origin 
and Authorship of the Pentateuch, self-destructive, op- 
posed to Scripture, incredible, and injurious to the reputa- 
tion of inspired men — The foundation of his Theory — 
The use of the name Jehovah in Genesis — Conclusion, 130 



APPENDIX. 



A. The Exodus in the Fourth Generation, and the families 

of Dan and Levi, &c. ..... 165 

B. The number of the Priests and their Duties, &c. 

C. Moses and Joshua addressing all Israel, . 

D. The Family of Judah, and Chief Families of Israel. 

E. The incredibility of Bishop Colenso's Theory as to the 

Origin of the Pentateuch, &c, .... 180 

F. The use of the name Jehovah in Genesis investigated, . 188 



171 
174 
177 



LECTUEE I.* 

Eev. xvi. 15. — " Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that 
watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, 
and they see his shame." 

By many modern interpreters of prophecy, and, among 
others, by the late acute and learned G. Stanley Faber, 
who in 1817 predicted the revival of the French 
Empire, this context has been regarded as referring 
to the times in which we live — giving symbolical 
representations of the events which are now passing 
over us. If this opinion be correct, the text must 
plainly be regarded as addressed to ourselves, warn- 
ing us of the peculiar dangers and temptations to 
which we are exposed, and admonishing us to be on 
our guard against them. " Behold," says the faith- 
ful and true Witness, " I come as a thief. Blessed is 
he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he 
walk naked, and they see his shame." 

But whether this opinion be correct or not, there 
are various classes of men, professing to be followers 
of the Lord Jesus Christ, to whom the admonition of 

* Delivered December 14, 1862. 
A 



2 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

the text might be appropriately commended. It 
might, I think, be not unseasonably whispered in the 
ears of a very considerable body of the clergy of the 
Church of England, who seem to have been seized 
with a perfect rage to divest themselves of those 
garments of truth and righteousness, with which 
above all men they have hitherto professed to be 
clothed, and to stand before the world in an attitude 
which is nothing less than shameful. 

Lately, no fewer than seven men, of high name and 
influence in that Church, sworn to maintain and defend 
her creed and formularies, and still retaining the hon- 
ours, emoluments, and influence which they derived 
from their connection with her, were seen labouring, 
" with might and main," to unsettle and destroy the 
foundations on which she rests. And now a bishop 
— no less than a consecrated and mitred bishop — seeks 
to do the same thing, not only for the foundations of 
the Church of England, but for the foundations of all 
Christian churches, and of Christianity itself. He 
seeks, I say, and seeks unblushingly, while retaining 
the name and status of a Christian bishop, to unsettle 
and destroy the deepest foundations on which Chris- 
tianity itself, and all communities deserving the name 
of Christian churches, must ever rest. Is this honest, 
or honourable, or anything less than shameful ? If it 
be, then I at least must confess my ignorance alike of 
moral distinctions and of the meaning of words. 

It may be said that these men do not suppose that 
they have departed from the standards of the Church 



Introductory Remarks. 3 

of England ; and further, that it has not yet been 
proved that they have so departed, — for the recent 
decision of the Court of Arches leaves this question 
very much in doubt. If so, then so much the worse 
for the Church of . England ; for, in that case, the 
charge must be transferred from her sons to herself. 
The Bishop of London was speaking to his clergy, the 
other day, of the Church of England as " appointed 
by the Lord Jesus Christ to be the chief witness on 
earth for those great truths which are of heavenly 
origin." The panegyric is perhaps a little too high- 
toned for our Presbyterian taste, yet we cannot with- 
hold the honour of a high place among the witnesses 
for the truth to the Church of the Eidleys and Lati- 
mers, the Hookers and Barrows, the Taylors and 
Tillotsons, the Butlers and Paleys of former days. 
But what has that Church become now, or what must 
she become, if it cannot be determined by her stand- 
ards or law courts what truths are of heavenly origin % 
and if among her clergy and people all possible 
varieties of creed, or no creed, are found, from the 
rankest Eomanism to the most withering infidelity ? 
Must not the Church herself in that case appear 
naked ? and must not it become an urgent question 
for the nation that supports her, Whether she has not 
outlived her usefulness, lost all spiritual vitality and 
power, become a source of corruption, and ought to 
be, as a national establishment, buried out of sight ? 
Eor, otherwise, may not her rich endowments only 
attract the ever watchful birds and beasts of prey ? 



4* The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

" Wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be 
gathered together." 

But there is another class of persons to whom the 
warning and admonition of the text might be profit- 
ably proclaimed, and proclaimed, not in a whisper, 
but with the loudest voice, and in the most earnest 
manner which any Christian man or minister can 
assume : namely, professing Christians, whose faith 
and experience are as yet but doubtful or immature, 
and who are likely to be tossed to and fro by the 
various winds of doctrine to which they are exposed ; 
or the anchor of whose souls is apt to be parted with 
and lost amid the trying, perplexing changes and 
storms which are coming on the Church and the 
world. To them I would more particularly apply the 
words of the text. Of the heretical clergy of the 
Church of England, or of any other church, who 
have already committed themselves, there is not 
much hope. But only the more ought the young and 
inexperienced to listen to the warning thus addressed 
to them, and be upon their guard. Let them watch 
and look well about them. Let them not part easily 
or thoughtlessly with the garments of their Christian 
faith and profession. Let them, even when stumbled 
by the objections brought against the Bible and the 
religion of Christ, reserve their opinion, and only 
study these the more that they may become better 
acquainted with them. Let them remember that 
these great temples of divine truth have withstood 
many a fierce blast both from earth and hell already, 



Bishop Colenso's Volume. 5 

and that He whose word has never yet been proved to 
be false, has pledged himself that they shall stand for 
ever. Sectarian creeds, though professedly founded 
on Scripture, may become obsolete and be forgotten. 
National and denominational churches which He 
never planted shall certainly perish. But that Church 
which He himself planted, and which rests on the 
foundation of his own person, and word, and work, 
shall never perish. Like the souls which He has 
redeemed, it shall live and nourish, even more abund- 
antly, in the time of trial and tempest, " and the gates 
of hell shall not prevail against it." 

But to come to the subject of which we propose to 
speak, — namely, the volume of Bishop Colenso on the 
Pentateuch and the book of Joshua, — there cannot be 
a moment's question that the publication of that 
volume is a remarkable phenomenon : so much so as 
to be a sign of the times. Not that there is much in 
the volume that is, properly speaking, new ; the same 
or similar objections against the authenticity and 
inspiration of these portions of the Scripture have 
often before been started, not only in Germany but in 
England. The books of the old English deists are 
full of such objections and quibbles, — some of them 
not less startling than any that Bishop Colenso's book 
contains. You will fmd, for instance, in that pro- 
scribed and infamous book, " Fame's Age of Season," 
as startling and plausible objections to the authenti- 
city and genuineness of the Pentateuch as any that 



6 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

this Christian bishop has brought forward ; and the 
best evidence that his objections are not new is that 
his book is to a large extent filled with the answers, 
and refutations of the answers, which other learned 
men — some of them far more learned than Bishop 
Colenso appears to be — have already given to these 
objections ; so that the whole meaning of the book 
is, that what has satisfied other learned men does not 
satisfy the Bishop of Natal. — The grand novelty in 
the Bishop's book is, that it is the book of a bishop 
— a colonial and missionary bishop of the Church of 
England — who still holds his place, and means, if he 
can, to do so ; and who seems to think that it will 
be a very great hardship or an actual injustice, if the 
English nation do not immediately consent to change 
its religion to suit Jiis convenience, and the conveni- 
ence of men like him who seem bent on betraying 
that truth which they have sworn to defend. 

Perhaps I ought in fairness to add that there is 
another novelty in this book, compared with such 
books as that of Thomas Paine, with which it has the 
same object and tendency. Dr. Colenso does not 
clothe his objections to the truth and inspiration of 
the Scriptures in the language of ribaldry and pro- 
fanity as that old and bold outlaw did. He does not 
make war on the priesthood as Paine did. On the other 
hand, his book is written with a show of candour, an 
air of modesty, and even, to use a Scottish phrase, 
" a sough of piety," which are very imposing ; and 
he enters also more minutely and learnedly into the 



Bishop Colenso's Volume. 7 

objections started than former objectors were accus- 
tomed to do. He professes to bring the statements of 
the Pentateuch to the test of arithmetic and mensura- 
tion, and to be compelled to reject them because they 
are not only untenable but absolutely and demonstrably 
impossible. The Bishop of Natal is a great mathema- 
tician ; he carries his foot-rule and his multiplication 
table with him into the field of inspiration, and when 
there, like the man " who botanizes on his mother's 
grave," he seems to forget everything but Euclid and 
the Eule of three. I do not find fault with him for 
bringing the statements of Scripture to the test of 
calculation. I think it perfectly right to do so; but 
I think also that the Christian who does so should 
not be so intent on always finding them wrong, — that 
he should be very careful that his data be sound and 
his calculations unquestionable, — and that, above all, 
he should not allow himself to forget that there are 
heights and depths, and lengths and breadths in 
Scripture which no human mensuration can compass, 
and momentous interests, which no human arithmetic 
can compute. 

What I propose in the sequel of this lecture is a 
very simple and general thing : I propose, first, to 
show what is the definite and undoubted position 
which this Christian bishop has assumed, not only in 
respect of the Pentateuch, but also in respect of the 
whole Bible, which has its foundation in the Penta- 
teuch, and even in respect of Christ, whose word the 
whole Bible is ; and then, secondly, to inquire 



8 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

whether he, or indeed any man, is qualified to as- 
sume that position and maintain it? and whether, 
especially, it is wise or safe for others to follow him 
into it ? In doing this, I shall not require to go 
beyond the Preface and Introduction of the Bishop's 
volume ; but in future lectures, God willing, I shall 
consider some of its arithmetical and other objections 
to the truth of the Pentateuch, and so endeavour to 
enable you to judge of its character and spirit and 
probable effects. My apology for taking up this sub- 
ject at all is the great sensation which the book has 
evidently occasioned throughout the country, the 
freedom with which extracts from it have been given 
by the public press, and the frequency with which, 
in all kinds of periodicals, it has been and continues 
to be discussed. I think that every friend of Divine 
revelation is, in the circumstances, called on to do 
what he can to guide perplexed minds to the truth. 

Pirst, then, let us endeavour to show the precise 
and definite position which the Bishop of Natal has, 
in his volume, assumed in regard to the inspiration 
and historical truth of the books of Moses and Joshua. 
This is easily shown; for it is sufficiently brought 
before us in the preface : a very curious preface, by 
the way, consisting in part of a long letter (which 
was never sent) to a professor of Divinity in one of 
the English universities, asking advice and direction 
in reference to the difficulties which the writer felt 
on the subject of his present publication. Prom this 



Bishop Colensds Position. 9 

letter we learn that, long before he became a bishop, 
Dr. Colenso had difficulties as to the historical truth of 
the early portions of the Old Testament ; and that, 
even when a parochial clergyman in England, he was 
in the habit of preaching from passages of the Old 
Testament, into the historical truth of which he did 
not closely examine. We learn also, from the same 
letter, that it was when he came into contact with 
the Zulu Kaffirs of southern Africa, that he was 
" brought face to face with questions " which he had 
before put by or allowed to sleep ; for then he was 
obliged to answer their simple-minded interrogations 
as to the historic truth of the inspired narratives (as, 
for instance, in regard to the universality of the 
Deluge) in a manner which satisfied them, but did 
not satisfy himself ; i. e. apparently, he taught them to 
believe what he did not himself believe, (p. viii.) 

From the preface also we learn, that it is not more 
than two years, from the present date, since the 
Bishop began to study, carefully and deeply, the sub- 
ject on which he writes ; but that now, having done 
so, he has come to the distinct and decided conclusion, 
that the Pentateuch is neither genuine nor true : i. e. 
was neither written by Moses, to whom it is commonly 
ascribed, nor by any other man, who was personally 
acquainted with the facts he professed to describe. 
" I became so convinced," says he, " of the unhistori- 
cal character of very considerable portions of the 
Mosaic narrative, that I decided not to forward my 
letter at all." And what he means by very consider- 



10 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

able portions of the Mosaic narrative, we afterwards 
learn to be the whole of it. For, says he, in his in- 
troduction, " The result of my inquiry is this, that I 
have arrived at the conviction, that the Pentateuch, 
as a whole, cannot possibly have been written by 
Moses, or by any one acquainted personally with 
the facts which it professes to describe, and further, 
that the (so-called) Mosaic narrative, by whomsoever 
written, and though imparting to us, as I fully believe 
it does, revelations of the Divine will and character, 
cannot be regarded as historically truer And by this 
expression, ' not historically true,' the Bishop means 
simply not true, bid false. Eot that he would call 
the Pentateuch a fiction : no ! for a fiction, according 
to him, is meant to deceive ; but the author of the 
Pentateuch, whoever he was, had no such intention : 
he never meant his story to be received as true, either 
by his own countrymen the Jews, or by any other 
class of men.* Such are some of the crudities we 
meet with in this preface, and are expected to receive 
on the word of a bishop. And such, also, is the 
position which this Christian bishop has assumed and 
undertaken to defend: the first five books of the 
Bible, he says, were neither written by Moses, nor 
are they a true history; and by consequence they 
could not have been written under the inspiration of 
the Spirit of God — the Spirit of holiness and truth. 

But this is not all, nor the worst. The author has 
virtually said, in his preface, that he has not exam- 
* Pref., p. 17, Note. 



Bishop Colensds Position. 11 

ined "in what way the interpretation of the New 
Testament is affected " "by his denial of the truth of 
the Pentateuch. But he shows, at the same time, 
that he has a pretty good guess on the subject. For he 
himself starts and endeavours to answer the patent 
objection to his theory, which will present itself to 
every intelligent Christian mind, viz., Did not our 
blessed Lord, by the manner in which he referred to 
and quoted the language of the Pentateuch, certify at 
once the Mosaic authorship, the historical truth, and 
the divine inspiration of that portion of the sacred vol- 
ume 1 — I need not quote all the passages in which Christ 
thus speaks of the writings of Moses. It is enough 
to refer to one, in the 5th chapter of John's gospel, 
in which, when reasoning with the Pharisees, he said, 
(v. 45-47), " Do not think that I will accuse you to 
the Father : there is one that accuseth you, even 
Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed 
Moses, ye would have believed me : for he wrote of 
me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye 
believe my words?" Nowhere it is plain that our 
blessed Lord not only virtually asserted that the 
books which the Jews ascribed to Moses were written b}^ 
him, and were true, but also that they possessed divine 
authority, and required to be believed by men in order 
to their believing in Christ. For how, otherwise, 
could the Pharisees be accused and condemned before 
the Father for their want of faith in Moses ? and 
how, otherwise, could they not be expected to believe 
Christ's words 1 It is self-evident that these things 



12 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

could have been said by Christ, only if the writings 
of Moses were the inspired and authoritative word of 
God. 

Here then we have a complete authentication of the 
books of Moses, by "the faithful and true Witness" 
— the beloved Son of the Father, who always spoke 
the words of the Father, and whom the Father him- 
self, by a voice from heaven, commands us to hear : 
"This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well 
pleased : hear him." 

And what does Bishop Colenso say to this 1 He 
has three answers : the first being the supremely 
weak one, that because there are several evident in- 
terpolations, or additions, in the books of Moses, 
such as the last chapter of Deuteronomy, Christ is 
not to be held as authenticating the Pentateuch as a 
whole. I shall not insult your understandings by 
seeking to shew the futility of this. — The Bishop's se- 
cond answer is equally weak, but still more dangerous. 
It is, in effect, that our blessed Lord spoke in accom- 
modation to the current, popular notions of the time, 
which of course were false : a principle which has 
only to be carried far enough in order to throw down 
all that is peculiar or divine in the teaching of Christ 
and his apostles, and turn the facts and doctrines of 
Christianity into Jewish myths, or "old wives' fables." — 
But the Bishop's third answer is more especially wor- 
thy of our attention : for it truly goes to the bottom 
of all such questions ; and if it be sound, you may 
without hesitation, I might almost say, burn your 
Bibles at once. 



Bishop Colenso's Position. J 3 

I give that answer in his own words : — 

" Lastly, it is perfectly consistent with the most entire and 
sincere belief in our Lord's Divinity, to hold, as many do, 
that, when He vouchsafed to become a ' Son of man,' He 
took our nature fully, and voluntarily entered into all the 
conditions of humanity, and, among others, into that which 
makes our growth in all ordinary knowledge gradual and 
limited. We are expressly told in Luke ii. 52, that ' Jesus 
increased in wisdom ' as well as in ' stature.' It is not sup- 
posed that, in His human nature, He was acquainted, more 
than any educated Jew of the age, with the mysteries of all 
modern sciences ; nor, with St Luke's expression before us, 
can it be seriously maintained that, as an infant or young 
child, He possessed a knowledge, surpassing that of the most 
pious and learned adults of his nation, upon the subject of 
the authorship and age of the different portions of the 
Pentateuch. At what period, then, of His life upon earth, 
is it to be supposed that he had granted to Him, as the Son 
of Man, super naturally, full and accurate information on 
these points, so that he should be expected to speak about 
the Pentateuch in other terms than any other devout Jew 
of that day would have employed? Why should it be 
thought that He would speak with certain Divine know- 
ledge on this matter, more than upon other matters of 
ordinary science or history ?" 

To this we reply : We readily admit that, as a 
man, our blessed Lord grew in wisdom and know- 
ledge, and was not omniscient. We admit, moreover, 
(and perhaps we would go farther here than even 
Bishop Colenso) that in seasons of trial and tempta- 
tion, when it was the will of His Father that his 
human nature should he tested, and thus proved to 
be wholly submissive to the Divine will, that nature 



14 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

was left, so to speak, to act for itself. The divine 
nature which he possessed must have been in a 
manner, and for the time, quiescent. It did not 
convey to the human nature either the power or the 
knowledge which was possessed by the divine. For 
how otherwise could he have either suffered or been 
tempted at all, even as a man ? — But, these things 
being readily admitted, we maintain, on the other 
hand, and maintain it as part of the very foundation 
of Christianity, that in all things necessary for the 
revelation of Divine truth and the performance of 
the work which his Father had given him to do — 
in all things that related to the ends and objects of 
his mission — the human nature of Christ, being in 
most intimate union with his divine nature, was 
furnished by that divine nature with perfect and 
infallible knowledge. " He knew all things. " He 
was " The Truth," and always spoke the truth. How 
often did he assert that the words which he spoke 
were not his, but the Father's that sent him; and 
that it was necessary to receive his words in order to 
be saved 1 And why, then, should it not be thought 
"that he would speak with certain Divine know- 
ledge" on the authorship and truth of the books of 
Moses 1 ? or on any other subject on which he deigned 
to speak ? If he did not speak on matters of ordinary 
science or history, it was not because he could not 
have spoken with " certain Divine knowledge," but 
because it did not come within his Divine commission 
— it was not a part of his work to do so. But on the 



Bishop Colensos Position. 15 

authorship and truth of the books of Moses he did 
speak ; and whoever says that He did not speak infal- 
libly and truly, however he may pretend to believe in 
the Divinity of Christ, knows not what he says nor 
whereof he affirms. What ! was Christ the " I AM that 
was before Abraham,"* and yet did not know who 
wrote the books of Moses 1 or whether these books 
contain a true history ? Was He " The Lord God 
op Israel" who marched at their head through 
the wilderness in his pillar of cloud and fire, and yet 
could not tell whether the things related concern- 
ing Himself and his people in the books of Moses 
were true? Nay, did He create the worlds, and 
throughout all the former ages " uphold all things by 
the word of his power ;"f and could He not, if he 
pleased, have made known the truth concerning all 
history and all science, as well as concerning the will 
of God and the way of salvation 1 Undoubtedly he 
could ; but he came for another purpose than that of 
teaching ordinary history and science — he came to 
save them that were lost — and his life on earth was 
all too short for doing anything else, or for doing any- 
thing whatever but that which his Father had given 
him to do. 

It may be added here, that as Christ expressly 
said, " I have not spoken of myself, but the Father 
who sent me, He gave me a commandment what I 
should say, and what I should speak ; and what- 
soever I speak, therefore, even as the Father said 
* John viii. 58. ■ f Heb. i. 2, 3. 



16 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

unto me, so I speak;"* — Bishop Colenso cannot main- 
tain his ground without going much farther than he 
has yet done. He must either deny the truth of 
these words of Christ, or say of the Father, as well 
as the Son, — Why should it be thought that HE 
would speak with certain Divine knowledge on this 
matter 1 — But I have said enough, perhaps, to show 
distinctly the position which this Christian bishop has 
assumed. While bearing the name of Christ, and hold- 
ing a high place in the Church of Christ, he sets him- 
self in offensive, not to say insolent, antagonism to his 
Divine Master, and says, virtually, that he knows 
better about the origin and truth of Scripture than 
the Incarnate Son of God, whose own word all Scrip- 
ture is, and " in whom dwelt all the fulness of the 
Godhead bodily;" — who, while the "child born" and 
the " son given," was at the same time " the Won- 
derful, the Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlast- 
ing Father, and the Prince of Peace." 

I come now to inquire, as I proposed, whether 
Bishop Colenso be the man to occupy such a position, 
and maintain it ; and whether, especially, it will be 
wise or safe for others to follow him into it. I might 
well have asked whether any man, or even an angel 
from heaven, is capable of maintaining such a position 
as this. But as we may be well assured that no angel 
from heaven will ever be found in it ; and equally 

* John xii. 49, 50. 



Bishop Colensos Qualifications. 17 

well assured that no wise, and thoughtful, and 
devout Christian would dare to occupy it — 

"But fools rush in where angels fear to tread;" 
— it may be as well to confine our question to 
the man who has dared to occupy it, and ask, What 
peculiar qualifications has he for maintaining that 
position? We are told that he has achieved for 
himself a great reputation as a mathematician. Well, 
let us honour him as such. But let us also keep in 
mind that there have been great mathematicians who 
were so destitute of the power of reasoning justly on 
moral and religious matters, as to be little better than 
children, or fools, on these subjects. I put little faith 
in his mathematical powers or learning, then, so far 
as the subject of his present volume is concerned ; 
and I must be allowed to ask what qualifications he 
has for treating of this subject in so authoritative, so 
dogmatical a way as he has done. Of course, I judge 
of his mind entirely from his books. I know nothing 
of him otherwise, and beg you to remember that in 
what follows, I am not, properly speaking, judging 
the man, but his book. 

Now, there are various things in his book from 
which we may safely conclude, that, on moral and re- 
ligious questions, his mind is neither very sensitive, 
nor very sagacious. For instance, he says in his 
letter to the professor of Divinity, "For myself, if 
I cannot find the means of doing away with my pre- 
sent difficulties, I see not how I can retain my Epis- 
copal office, in the discharge of which I must require 



1 8 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

of others a solemn declaration that they unfeignedly 
believe all the canonical Scriptures of the Old and New 
Testaments ; which, with the evidence now before me, 
it is impossible wholly to believe in." Now, what I 
marvel at here is, that any man of sense or feeling 
should tremble at requiring of others the same solemn 
declaration which he has made, and continues, by 
remaining in his office, to make for himself ; especi- 
ally when we remember that it is not these " others," 
but himself that has the difficulties and evidence 
spoken of ; and when we remember, too, that by the 
time he published this unsent letter his difficulties 
had been transformed into disbeliefs, and he was 
telling the whole world, not only that he could not 
" unfeignedly believe," but that he thoroughly disbe- 
lieved part of what this solemn declaration asserts, 
namely, the authority and truth of all the canonical 
books of the Old and New Testaments. This, I think, 
displays so strange an idiosyncrasy, and so great a 
moral obliquity, in the mind of the writer, as render 
his judgments on moral and religious subjects utterly 
worthless. 

Take another illustration of the character of Dr 
Colenso's mind as brought out in his book ; and as 
I esteem it an important matter, seeing it relates to 
the morality of one of the laws of Moses, you will 
forgive me for dwelling upon it at some length. The 
reference to it is introduced in a somewhat indirect 
and artistic manner, and is in no small degree im- 
posing. • The law in question is contained in Exodus 



Bishop Colensos Qualifications. 19 

xxi. 20, 21, and reads thus : — " And if a man smite 
his servant or his maid with a rod, and he die under 
his hand, he shall surely be punished ; (rather he, i. e. 
the servant, shall surely be avenged.) Notwithstand- 
ing, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be 
punished (or avenged) ; for he is his money." Now 
observe carefully what the Eishop of Natal says of 
this law: — 

" I shall never forget the revulsion of feeling with which a 
very intelligent Christian native, with whose help I was trans- 
lating these words into the Zulu tongue, hrst heard them as 
words said to be uttered by the same great and gracious Being, 
whom I was teaching him to trust in, and adore. His whole 
soul revolted against the notion, that the Great and Blessed 
God, the Merciful Father of all mankind, would speak of a 
servant or maid as mere 'money,' and allow a horrible crime 
to go unpunished because the victim of the brutal usage had 
survived a few hours. My own heart and conscience, at the 
time, fully sympathized with his. But I then clung to the 
notion, that the main substance of the narrative was histori- 
cally true. And I relieved his difficulty, and my own, for the 
present, by telling him that I supposed that such words as these 
were written down by Moses, and believed by him to have 
been divinely given to him, because the thought of them 
arose in his heart, as he conceived, by the inspiration of God ; 
and that hence, to all such laws, he prefixed the formula, 
' Jehovah said unto Moses,' without it being on that account 
necessary for us to suppose that they were actually spoken 
by the Almighty. This was, however, a very great strain 
upon the cord which bound me to the ordinary belief in the 
historical veracity of the Pentateuch ; and since then, that 
cord has snapped in twain altogether." 

Such is the Bishop's comment, given with a great 



20 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

deal of apparent simplicity, "but, at the same time, 
with considerable ingenuity and art. 

Now, the question here does not relate to the Tight- 
ness or wrongness of slavery. If it did, the answer 
would be that the law of Moses tolerated slavery 
just as it did polygamy, as an evil unavoidable in the 
circumstances in which the Israelites were placed ; but 
sought also to regulate and modify it. But what 
Bishop Colenso and his "intelligent native" stand 
aghast at is, that if a master beat his slave with a rod, 
and if that slave died a day or two after, his death 
was not to be avenged ; and for this reason, that the 
slave was his master's money. 

Now, notice that this law occurs among a number 
of other laws, designed evidently to distinguish be- 
tween murder and manslaughter, and designed also to 
regulate that old consuetudinary law so prevalent 
among the Hebrews and Arabs and other oriental 
nations, commonly called the law of blood revenge ; 
according to which it was not the magistrate that 
punished the manslayer, but the Goel, or nearest of kin, 
of the man who had been slain — a rude and summary 
mode of executing justice which, no doubt, must often 
have been productive of much injustice and blood- 
shed and cruelty, but still one which could not be at 
once put down. Eead some of the verses in the 
context, and you will perceive at once that this was 
the character and design of this law* which was so 
horrifying to the tender consciences of the Bishop of 
.Natal and his Zulu christian : — " He that smiteth a 



Bishop Colenso's Qualifications. 21 

man, so that lie die, shall be surely put to death. 
And if a man lie not in wait, "but God deliver him 
into his hand ; then I will appoint thee a place 
whither he shall flee. But if a man come pre- 
sumptuously upon his neighbour, to slay him with 
guile ; thou shalt take him from mine altar, that 
he may die. And he that stealeth a man, and 
selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall 
surely be put to death. And if men strive together, 
and one smite another with a stone, or with his fist, 
and he die not, but keepeth his bed : If he rise again, 
and walk abroad, upon his staff, then shall he that 
smote him be quit : only he shall pay for the loss of 
his .time, and shall cause him to be thoroughly 
healed."* 

But to come to the law in question itself — How 
may it be explained 1 I answer first, that there can 
be no question of the truth of the reason assigned for 
the slave's not being avenged, namely, that he was his 
master's money. When a person buys a house, that 
house is his money. It is purchased with his money, 
and is all he has for his money. When he buys a 
horse, that horse is his money. And so, when he 
buys a slave, that slave, is his money: not "mere 
money," as the Bishop of Natal presumes to pervert 
the language of Scripture. The Bible gives no coun- 
tenance to the " goods-and- chattels " theory of slavery. 
It never forgets that the meanest slave has an immortal 
soul, and is much more than any fellowman's pro- 
* Exod xxi. 12, 13, U, 16, 18, 19. 



22 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

perty. But still, that the slave, bought with his money, 
is so far his master's property — his master's money — 
his silver, as the expression literally is — who can 
deny? 

"Well, this being admitted, I ask you, Is there any 
likelihood in ordinary circumstances of any sane man 
deliberately and willingly setting about the destruc- 
tion of his own property 1 Did you ever hear of any 
but a maniac buying a house, and then deliberately 
setting it on fire 1 or buying a horse, and then de- 
liberately taking a gun and shooting it dead ? And 
have we any right then to suppose that a master hav- 
ing bought a slave, will deliberately and willingly 
beat him to death ? Certainly not ; and why 1 Just 
because the slave is "his money," and his death would 
necessarily be a great loss to the master himself. 
True, there may be instances in which a master may 
be so excited with passion, so transported by rage 
against his slave, that he thinks not of his own loss 
or of his servant's life, but intentionally, though we 
can hardly say deliberately, kills him outright. But 
the law in question made provision for such cases by 
saying, that if the servant died under his master's 
hand, he was to be avenged. It was only in case he 
lived a day or two after being beaten with a rod — or 
bastinadoed, as the expression may be understood to 
mean — it was only then that the death of the slave 
was not to be avenged. And why, again, but just 
because he was his master's money. For that proved 
the crime (even if we should so call what might be 



Bishop Golensds Qualifications. 23 

more an accident than a crime) to be not murder, but 
manslaughter; and it reminds us at the same time 
that for this the master was punished already. He 
had punished himself; for he had destroyed his own 
property — thrown away his own money. If any say, 
surely the loss of money was not a sufficient punish- 
ment of manslaughter, I ask, How is manslaughter 
commonly punished in Britaiu "? Is it not commonly 
by temporary imprisonment 1 And is not such im- 
prisonment again considered equivalent to, and often 
remitted for, a fine — a payment in money 1 ? So that, 
after all Bishop Colenso's affectation of horror at the 
iniquity and. cruelty of this law of Moses, it may 
easily be seen that the highly civilized, and professedly 
Christian, British nation, in the nineteenth century, 
acts upon precisely the same moral principles as those 
so plainly embodied and so graphically expressed in 
this short law. 

But more than this : there was not only justice but 
mercy in this Mosaic law. For let it be remembered 
that the circumstance of the slave's living a day or two 
was just a rude and simple way of determining the im- 
portant question whether his death could certainly be 
traced to his master's hand, or not. And it was perhaps, 
in those days, the only way in which such a question 
could be determined ; for the Israelites had not, like 
us, the means of deciding, by post-mortem examina- 
tions or otherwise, what was certainly the immediate 
cause of death. If any be disposed to allege that a 
day or two was too short a time for this purpose, I 



24 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

reply, that if this law, as I believe, was intended also 
to regulate and moderate the operation of the law of 
blood revenge, then the shorter the time allowed the 
better ; for it was the more likely to rescue many an 
innocent victim from the operation of that rude and 
bloody custom. It was, in this view, a parallel insti- 
tution to that of the cities of refuge, which no one has 
ever doubted was a very merciful institution, — an 
appointment worthy of the God of mercy and love. 
For let it be remembered, again, that the operation of 
this law of blood revenge, like the blood feuds which 
formerly prevailed in our own land, was liable to be 
carried down from father to son, and from generation 
to generation, leading to endless bloodshed, and misery, 
and crime. 

Before leaving the words of Bishop Colenso on 
this subject, notice for a moment the ingenuity (not 
ingenuousness) of the answer which he says he returned 
to the Zulu who was so horrified at this law of the 
God of Jacob. It may be safely asserted that, though 
Bishop Colenso had been meditating on the subject 
from that day to this, he could not have found or con- 
trived a more direct or complete way than that which 
he adopted of striking a blow, not only at the Penta- 
teuch, but at the whole Bible, and reducing all its 
contents at once to a heap of rubbish. What might 
he have said — even though ignorant of the true mean- 
ing and design of this law — if he had been disposed, 
" for his oath's sake," to maintain the authority of 
Scripture? He might have said that God gave some 



Bishop Colensds Qualifications. 25 

laws to the Israelites, not because He approved of 
them, but "because of the hardness of their hearts" 
— "statutes which were not good, and judgments 
whereby they should not live;"* and perhaps this 
was one of these. Or, without " speaking wickedly 
for God," he might have made other apologies for a 
law he did not understand. But instead of this, what 
did he say? He tells us that he said, virtually, that 
Moses did not certainly know that he was inspired 
when he wrote these laws, but only thought and 
said so, and added the solemn expression, " Jehovah 
said unto Moses," to cover the pretence. And 
does not this make Moses as really a lying impostor 
as Mohammed or any other impostor ever was? 
And more than this, if Moses did not know when 
he was inspired, what reason have we to think 
that any of the Old Testament prophets or New 
Testament apostles knew it better than he ? And if 
they did not know this, what is the whole volume 
of inspiration but a delusion and a snare? Thus, 
even at this early period of his difficulties and studies, 
the Bishop must have been far gone in scepticism, and 
the cord which bound him to the ordinary belief in 
the historical veracity of the Pentateuch must have 
been not only a very feeble, but also a very slippery 
one. 

But he is sadly out in his facts and reckoning 
here as he is in many other places. For those laws 
of Moses, of which this was one, were not revealed to 
* Matt. xix. 8; Ezek. xx. 25. 



26 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

him by what is commonly called inspiration, but were 
communicated to him when he was with Jehovah 
forty days and forty nights on the mount, when he 
saw Him "face to face," and talked with Him "mouth 
to mouth." Was it ignorance, or unbelief, or what 
was it, that led to this mistake ? 

But enough : I now leave the question with your- 
selves — Whether this is a man, though a bishop, 
whom it will be safe to follow into the dark, dreary, 
desolate regions of infidelity into which he has 
wandered? — a man who is so weak or so deceitful 
as to say such things of himself; so ignorant or 
blinded with prejudice as thus to misrepresent the 
character of the laws of Moses ; and who has, at the 
same time, so little honour or conscience as to remain 
under the solemn avowal that he "unfeignedly be- 
lieves all the canonical Scriptures," when he is labour- 
ing to unsettle the faith of others, not only in a part, 
but in the whole of the volume of inspiration. 

In conclusion, let me exhort all who hear me 
to give all diligence to understand and obey the 
warning of the text, and enjoy the blessedness which 
it promises. Let every Christian — let every young 
and inexperienced person especially — give good heed 
to this earnest and affectionate voice of the true 
" Shepherd and Bishop of souls," " Behold, I come as 
a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his 
garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame." 
There are times when it is comparatively easy to hold 



Bishop Colensos Qualifications. 27 

fast the garments of the Christian faith and profes- 
sion. Then there is no temptation to cast them off 
But at other times — times of persecution, or of 
abounding infidelity — it is different ; and the present- 
threatens to be one of these times. It threatens to 
be one of those times which the Apostle who wrote 
the words of the text calls a last time : "Little chil- 
dren, it is a last time : and as ye have heard that 
antichrist shall come, even now are there many 
antichrists; whereby we know that it is a last time." 
Be upon your guard then ; look out for dangers and 
be ready to meet them. And for this purpose main- 
tain your confidence in Scripture — the whole Scrip- 
ture — as the Word of God. That is our grand security. 
We need an infallible guide in religion; and if 
Scripture be not such a guide, there is none on 
earth. In all other matters — in science, in politics, 
in all worldly affairs — man's reason, and observation, 
and experience are sufficient to guide him ; but in 
religion, he can know nothing and do nothing with- 
out first having a revelation from God — a revelation 
unfolding to him the character and will of God, and 
the way of salvation. And that revelation, *to serve 
its purpose, or be of any value, must be all true and 
infallible. It will not serve its purpose if it be partly 
true and partly false — partly dictated by inspiration 
of God, and partly by the wisdom or folly of man. 
Such a Bible would be alike unworthy of God and 
useless to man ; it would be " a mockery, and a delu- 
sion, and a snare." Be persuaded, then, to maintain 



28 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

your confidence in Scripture ; and for this purpose 
study it more, and seek to understand it better. 
Love it, lay it up in your hearts, practise it. ]N T o 
man, I believe, ever lost confidence in Scripture as 
the Word of God who understood it well — who had 
found Christ in it, and, through Him, the hope of 
eternal life. That man is a safe and happy, and 
the only safe and happy man. " Blessed is the man 
who walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor 
standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat 
of the scornful : but his delight is in the law of the' 
Lord; and in His law doth he meditate day and 
night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the 
rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his 
season : his leaf also shall not wither ; and what- 
soever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly are not 
so ; but are like the chaff which the wind driveth 
away." 



LECTUKE H.* 

John v. 46, 47-— "Had ye believed Moses, ye wonid have 
believed me ; for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his 
writings, how shall ye believe my words ?" 

That there are many and great difficulties in the 
Bible, and especially in the earlier books of the Bible, 
will be at once frankly admitted by all who have 
much . knowledge of these books, or any thing to do 
with their interpretation. These difficulties are of 
all kinds — theological and ethical, philological and 
philosophical, historical and prophetical, difficulties 
in regard to facts, and difficulties in regard to figures 
— and of those last, both what we call figures of 
speech and arithmetical figures, or numbers. As to 
the former, I confess I have never seen any commen- 
tary that has brought tolerable sense out of that 
language of good old Jacob (though I have no doubt 
that it contains some profound and far-reaching 
truth) concerning the Shiloh, — " Binding his foal unto 
the vine, and his ass's colt unto the choice vine, he 
washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the 
blood of grapes. His eyes shall be red with wine, 
and his teeth white with milk." And as to the 

* Delivered Jan. 11, 1863. 



30 TJie Pentateuch Vindicated. 

latter, I have no hesitation in saying that, if our 
faith in the Bible were to hinge on our being able to 
make out from it a consistent chronology of the 
events recorded in it, or to harmonize all the other 
numbers of which it speaks, very few indeed would 
or could believe in it. Few would have the time to 
search into such matters, and fewer still the talents 
and learning necessary for the task. I do not say 
that it would be impossible to do this, but only that 
it would be a great and difficult labour indeed, for 
which not one in many thousands of the readers of the 
Bible would be at all competent. 

If any should ask, Whence are these difficulties, 
and why are they found in a book that comes from 
God, and is designed for the instruction, correction, 
and edification in righteousness of all classes of men? — 
it would take a long time and much consideration to 
give anything like a suitable reply. But permit me 
shortly to mention some of the most obvious sources 
of these difficulties. — Think of the antiquity of the 
whole Bible, and especially of the earlier portions of it. 
It is now by common reckoning thirty-three centuries 
since the books of Moses were written, — and what 
changes have taken place since then in the customs and 
manners, and in the modes of thinking and speaking 
of men ! Who can reflect for a moment on this fact, 
and on the other fact, that the whole scriptures were 
written in other lauds, in other languages, than 
ours, without seeing that in the very nature of things 
obscurities and difficulties must be found in them ? 



Sources of Scripture Difficulties. 31 

These obscurities and difficulties are part of the 
evidence of their antiquity and truth ; for certainly a 
book that was all plain to us would have been very 
obscure and very useless to those for whom the Bible 
was first written. 

Think again of the necessary brevity of the whole 
Bible, and especially the historical parts of the Penta- 
teuch. Often you have the records of a hundred or 
a thousand years in a single chapter or two ; and how 
can these records be free of difficulty, or at least of 
such statements as may furnish ground of difficulty to 
captious cavillers? Bishop Colenso is in the habit of 
saying, concerning certain answers to his difficulties, 
' They are not found in the record.' But if all had 
been in the record which would have been necessary 
to preclude such cavils as his, the Pentateuch, or the 
book of Exodus alone, would have required to be 
many times larger than the whole Bible, and the 
whole Bible, constructed on the same principle, would 
have become so voluminous as to be useless : The 
world itself, to use the evangelist's popular hyperbole, 
would hardly have contained the books that would 
have been written. At any rate, instead of having 
a Bible which you can hold in your hand, and carry 
in your pocket, you would have had a whole library 
to wade through before you could have attained a 
complete view of the revelation of God. And this is 
no unimportant evidence of the divine origin of 
Scripture. Considered as a specimen of the multum 
in parvo, the Bible is a perfect miracle. Sure I am, 



32 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

tliere is no other book in the -world to be compared 
with it in this respect. 

Another source of Scripture difficulties is the errors 
of transcription and translation, and even the thought- 
less or wicked interpolations (the work of uninspired 
men) which have, in the course of so many ages, 
crept into the Bible, and which cannot now be de- 
tected and cast out. I believe the Bible to be as pure 
as the generality of ancient books, perhaps a great 
deal purer, for the providence of God seems to have 
watched over it with special care ; but without a con- 
tinuance of stupendous miracles — without in fact the 
gift of inspiration, imparted to all who were engaged in 
the work of transcribing and translating it, — such 
errors and interpolations could not be prevented ; and 
it becomes us to bear this in mind when dealing with 
the apparent discrepancies or contradictions, and 
especially with the arithmetical difficulties of Scrip- 
ture. We ought not lightly, on account of such 
things, to cast away our confidence in any part of the 
Bible. It is now generally believed by critics that 
the first eleven verses of the eighth chapter of John's 
gospel are an interpolation; but are we on this 
account to lose confidence in the divine authority and 
value of one of the profoundest, richest, and most in- 
structive of all the books of Scripture 1 Surely not : 
and if such interpolations are found in one of the latest 
books of the ^N T ew Testament — perhaps the very last that 
was written — can we rationally expect that the books of 
the Old Testament, and especially those of the Penta- 



Sources of Scripture Difficulties. 33 

teuch, the very first that were written, will be alto- 
gether free of them ? 

I mention only one other source of Scripture diffi- 
culties at present, but I have no doubt it is the most 
fertile of all — the ignorance and self-conceit of readers 
and interpreters. This, indeed, is not in the Bible 
itself, but in the mind of the reader or interpreter. 
But does that make it the less productive of difficulty, 
or the less perplexing ? Far from it : it makes it 
manifestly more so ; for comparatively few men are 
more ready to trace a mistake to themselves than to 
the Bible. Even honest and believing interpreters, 
who are not seeking difficulties, are liable to this 
weakness ; and how much more those unbelieving or 
dishonest ones, who have set out on a voyage of dis- 
covery for the purpose of finding them ! Take an 
illustration of this : The very first objection which 
Paine, in his "Age of Reason," brought against the 
genuineness and truth of the books of Moses — for his 
book had partly the same object in view as that of 
Bishop Colenso — was what appeared to him a glaring- 
anachronism. In the 14th chapter of Genesis it is 
said that Abraham pursued the confederate kings, 
who had carried off his nephew Lot, to Dan. Now 
Paine could easily show, from the book of Judges, 
that the Israelitish city called Dan was not built till 
hundreds of years after the time of Abraham, and a 
very considerable period after the death of Moses. 
Here, then, was a stumbler for the priests, and a 
marrow-bone for the infidels. What could be clearer 
C 



34 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

than the inference that the book of Genesis was not 
written by Moses, and, as Bishop Colenso would say, 
was not ' historically true 1 ' And what was the sole 
foundation for this objection ? Nothing but the 
ignorance and self-conceit of its author. Paine was 
not sufficiently acquainted with the Bible, or the 
lands of the Bible, to know, and he was not suffici- 
ently modest to suppose, that there was or might be 
another place called Dan existing in the days of 
Abraham, and that it, and not the Dan he thought 
of, was that which is mentioned in the history of 
Abraham.* 

But to come to Bishop Colenso, and his arithmetical 
and other difficulties to be found in the Pentateuch : 

* In his second volume, among the garbage raked together 
from various quarters, Bishop Colenso has given this objection 
of Paine's a place. The fact is enough to indicate the unity 
of spirit of the two men, and is far from being creditable either 
to the Bishop's candour or learning. How many instances 
of more than one place bearing the same name are to be 
found in Scripture ! That there was a place named Dan, 
before the death of Moses, is proved by Deut. xxxiv. 1. 
This could not be Dan-Laish referred to in Judges xviii. 29, 
for it was in the land of Gilead, which Dan-Laish was not. 
This Dan in Gilead was probably that to which Abraham 
is said to have pursued the confederate kings, for it would be 
on the most direct route from Hebron to Damascus, beyond 
which he followed them, (Gen. xiv. 15). Even though Dan- 
Laish had then existed, it could not have been rationally 
supposed to be the place referred to in Genesis xiv. 14, see- 
ing it would have been fifty miles at least out of the way 
both of the pursuer and pursued. 



Difficulties in the Pentateuch. 35 

it will not be supposed that I propose to examine all 
these and endeavour to solve them. This would be 
a task for which I have neither the necessary learn- 
ing nor the necessary time. It is far more easy, in 
this sinful world of ours, to create difficulties than 
remove them — to do mischief than to remedy it ; and 
as Bishop Colenso seems to have taken nearly two 
years to frame his objections to the Pentateuch, it 
would take a much longer time to answer them all. 
But to examine and answer them all is not necessary, 
at least for my purpose. My thesis is, That Jesus 
Christ has authenticated the Pentateuch both as the 
writings of Moses and as true ; — and my question is, 
Is Bishop Colenso the man to overturn this authenti- 
cation, or our confidence in it, by proving that the 
Pentateuch was not written by Moses, and is not 
true 1 And I conceive it to be quite sufficient, as an 
answer to this question, to examine a few of his diffi- 
culties, and show of what character they are. Sure I 
am that this will be sufficient, even if it were neces- 
sary, to satisfy the mind and establish the faith of 
all who have confidence in Jesus Christ as "the 
faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation 
of God, in whom dwells all the fulness of the Godhead 
bodily." 

But permit me to explain here that, when I say 
that Jesus Christ has authenticated the Pentateuch, 
I mean that He has done so only in its original and 
pure state. I do not mean that He has made himself 
responsible for any errors or interpolations that have 



36 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

crept into it. If there be such, let them, as far possible, 
be discovered and cast out. If there be any misinter- 
pretations or exaggerations of numbers, for instance, 
or any adulteration of the narrative by the insertion of 
spurious statements, or paragraphs, or sections, which 
neither Moses nor any other inspired man wrote, let 
all such, when detected, be summarily condemned and 
excluded from the canon. Nay, if even any whole 
book can be satisfactorily proved to be uncanonical, 
let it be taken from the Bible and added to the 
Apocrypha. No one will have more reason to be 
thankful for such a service than the intelligent and 
devout Christian. But this is a very different thing 
from that which the Bishop of Natal proposes. What 
he would have us to do is, on the ground of certain 
arithmetical and other difficulties which he has 
found, or framed, to reject the whole Mosaic narra- 
tive as a fable, and, of course, the authentication of it 
by Jesus Christ as either an ignorant or wilful mis- 
representation. 

Now what I propose is, to examine as carefully as 
I can some of the grounds on which he wishes us to 
come to this tremendous conclusion, and ascertain 
whether they are sufficient to bear it, and whether, 
therefore, we must necessarily cease to believe both 
in Moses and in Christ. I shall, for convenience 
sake, arrange the difficulties which I propose to con- 
sider in three classes. 

I. Those which may be shown to be entirely or 
mainly of Bishop Colenso's own creation. 



Number of the Israelites. 37 

II. Those in regard to which, though not entirely 
of his own creation, he has ignored or rejected obvious 
considerations which go far to lessen or remove them. 

III. Those from which, though they may be ad- 
mitted to be real difficulties, he has drawn unwarrant- 
able conclusions. I shall consider one or more 
difficulties of each of these classes. 

And first, of the difficulties which I take to be of the 
Bishop's own creation — I shall notice, first, that which 
relates to the number of the Israelites at the time of 
the Exodus. It is not necessary that I should read 
much of what he says on this subject, for as I mean 
to grapple only with the principle on which he pro- 
ceeds, it will be enough to quote a few sentences in 
which this principle is clearly stated. He says (p. 
102) :— 

" In the first place, it must be observed, as already noted, 
that we nowhere read of any very large families among the 
children of Jacob or their descendants to the time of the 
Exodus. We may suppose, in order that we may have the 
population as large as possible, that very few died prema- 
turely, and that those who were born almost all lived and 
multiplied. But we have no reason whatever, from the data 
furnished by the Sacred Books themselves, to assume that 
they had families materially larger than those of the present 
day. Thus we are told in Gen. xlvi. that Reuben had 4 
sons, Simeon 6, Levi 3, Judah 5, Issachar 4, Zebulun 3, 
Gad 7, Asher 4, Joseph 2, Benjamin 10, Dan 1, Naphtali4. ,, 

And again (p. 103), 

"The twelve sons of Jacob, then, as appears from the 
above, had between them 53 sons, that is, on the average, 4^ 



38 The Pentateuch Vindicated, 

each. Let us suppose that they increased in this war from 
generation to generation. Then in the first generation, that 
of Kohath, there would he 54 males, (according to the story, 
53, or rather only 51, since Er and Onan died in the land of 
Canaan, ver. 12, without issue,) — in the second, that of 
Amram, 243, — in the third, that of Moses and Aaron, 1,094, — 
and in the fourth, that of Joshua and Eleazar, 4,923 ; that is to 
say, instead of 600,000 warriors in the prime of life, there 
could not hare been 5,000." 



Now what I count the principle, and the vicious 
principle, in this sort of reasoning or calculation is, 
that, forgetting that God had sent the Israelites into 
Egypt for the very purpose of being preserved and 
increased there, Bishop Colenso takes it for granted 
that He must needs increase them, at the same rate at 
which the sons of Jacob had increased in Canaan, or 
at any other rate to be derived from any preceding 
part of their history ; and also that the whole families 
of Israel had only four generations to increase in. I 
perfectly agree with him that the time of their resi- 
dence in Egypt was only 215 years. All who ques- 
tion this, seem to me to contradict the plain language 
of Scripture. I agree also that men of the 4th genera- 
tion, from the sons of Jacob, entered into Canaan 
with Joshua. And perhaps this is sufficient to satisfy 
all that is required by the promise to Abraham — that 
in the fourth generation his descendants should come 
hither again.* But whether it be so or not, (for that 
promise may be explained in other ways,) I deny 

* Gen. xt. 18. 



Number of the Israelites. 39 

that it warrants us to suppose that the Israelites 
generally did not marry till they were more than 50 
years of age, and that they all passed through only four 
descents in 215 years. Why, Joshua, the leader of 
Israel into Canaan, was himself, so far as we can 
learn, of the 10th generation from Joseph;* and his 
case, I am inclined to believe, would be nearer the 
general mark than that of some of the families of Levi 
and others, which Bishop Colenso has adduced. Or 
suppose these two numbers (4 generations and 10 
generations) the extremes — then the average de- 
rived from them would be seven generations; and 
that would make the length of each generation the same, 
or even greater than it had been for more than two 
centuries before the birth of Terah the father of 
Abraham, and very nearly the same as it is reckoned 
still. 

But there is a far deeper and more serious objec- 
tion to Bishop Colenso's principle, than any such 
reckoning about the number of generations, which at 
the best must be greatly conjectural and insecure. I 
have to remind you of a fact concerning the Israelitish 
nation and its growth which all Scripture and all his- 
tory attest, but which Bishop Colenso has altogether 
ignored. He has not denied it, so far as I have 
observed, but all his data and suppositions and calcula- 
tions on this subject run in the very face of it. It is 
this, that the seed of Abraham and of Jacob, were a 
" peculiar people " — in some respects a supernatural 

* 1 Chr. vii. 20-27.— Hales's Chron., Vol. ii., 145, n. 



40 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

people, whose origin and history, whose increase and 
diminution were not regulated by the laws which 
govern those of other peoples, but by that peculiar 
and supernatural and covenanted providence, under 
which God himself had intimated to their fathers, 
that He would place them. Do you ask where is the 
evidence of this, apart from Scripture 1 I answer, you 
have it before your eyes. There the Jews still stand 
before you, a peculiar people, dispersed among all 
nations, yet separate from all nations, and testifying 
by all their character and history, as clearly as if it 
were written on their countenances, that they have 
not been providentially treated as other peoples, nor 
trained as other peoples ; but have, from their begin- 
ning hitherto, been a peculiar people, "dwelling alone, 
and not reckoned among the nations." 

Let us remember one or two facts concerning their 
origin and early history, that we may see how vain it 
is to reason about their increase on the ground of what 
is called " natural law," or ordinary experience in other 
cases. Abraham was 100, and Sarah was 90 years 
old before they had a son — according to all natural 
law and ordinary experience, we should have said they 
would never have a son. But they had a son — not 
a "child of the flesh, but of the promise," — and that 
son became the root of the whole Israelitish nation. 

Again, Isaac was 60 years old, and had been twenty 
years married, before he had a child. From all ordi- 
nary experience we should have concluded that, pro- 
bably at least, he would die childless. But again the 



Number of the Israelites. 41 

dictates of nature and experience were contradicted, 
and Isaac had two sons, one of them, at least, the 
child of prayer, and the heir of the promises. And 
here it may be remarked, by the way, that the birth 
of Jacob and Esau ought to check some other reckless 
speculations of the present day, beside those of Bishop 
Colenso. For how often are objections to Scripture 
drawn fiom the different bodily conformation and 
complexion of what are called " different races" of 
men 1 I suspect that almost as great a difference in 
these respects was to be seen in these twin sons of Isaac, 
as exists now between the Caucasian and the Malay. 
But however this may be, there the children were, 
laughing to scorn all calculations founded on ordinary 
experience or natural law. 

Once more, Jacob, according to the common chrono- 
logy, was well on to eighty years of age before he 
had a wife, or could have a son ; and what then, 
according to the principles on which Bishop Colenso 
forms his data, and rests his calculations, should 
have been our conclusion in regard to him ? Cer- 
tainly that he could not be expected to have either 
son or daughter ; and that for any thing that nature 
could do, or ordinary experience teach, God's pro- 
mises to Abraham must have failed, and the seed of 
Jacob never existed. But what again was the fact 
— a fact attested not only by all Scripture, but also, 
through its division into twelve tribes, by all the 
future history of the Israelitish nation 1 In a very 
short time Jacob had twelve stalwart sons, and at 



42 TJie Pentateuch Vindicated. 

least one daughter; and these sons became the fathers 
of "the many thousands of Israel." 

Now, either Bishop Colenso believed all this peculiar 
history of the patriarchs, or he did not. If he did 
not, then he ought to have said so ; and, beginning 
with Abraham, he ought to have given us some idea 
of the true patriarchal history down to the time of the 
migration to Egypt. But if he did believe it, then 
why has he ignored and contradicted all the lessons 
it is fitted to teach 1 

Observe his method of procedure. He wishes to 
prove Scripture inconsistent with itself, as well as 
with ordinary experience or natural law, and thus to 
prove its incredibility. To do this, he takes only so 
much of it as suits himself, interpreting it in his own 
way, and so brings out a conclusion in startling oppo- 
sition to the facts attested by the record. For instance, 
God had promised to Abraham and Jacob that their 
seed should be as the stars of heaven, and as the dust 
of the earth for multitude.* For the trial of their 
faith the fulfilment of this promise was long delayed ; 
but, as we are told by Stephen, "the time of the 
promise" came when the Israelites were in Egypt, and 
" the people grew and multiplied." t What Moses says 
of this fulfilment of the promise is, that "the children 
of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, and 
multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty ; and the 
land was filled with them :"J an increase evidently, if 
there be meaning in words, as rapid and marvellous 
* Gen. xv. 5; xxyiii. 14. f Acts vii. 17. + Exod. i. 7. 



Number of the Israelites. 43 

in the end as it had been slow at the beginning. But 
'No,' says Bishop Colenso, 'there was nothing, and 
could be nothing marvellous in the case. We must 
judge of the end by the beginning. We nowhere 
read of any very large families among the children of 
Jacob, or their descendants, and we must judge 
accordingly. Either there was no promise of God on 
the subject, or God could not or would not, for the 
fulfilment of his promise, make the Israelites multiply 
faster than other peoples, or than He had multiplied 
their fathers in Canaan. He could give only four-and- 
a-half sons to each Israelitish father, and that only 
four times repeated in 2 1 5 years. And there you have 
the whole result, — less than 5,000 warriors, or men up- 
wards of twenty years of age.' Now what is this kind 
of reasoning 1 Is it not arrant trifling 1 Or is it not 
worse, "replying against God," or even denying the 
power or the being of God 1 

Why, on this principle you may make anything you 
please of the number of the Israelites at the time of 
the Exodus. Bishop Colenso has reduced them to 
5,000 adult men ; I will undertake by another, but 
equally warrantable application of the principle, to re- 
duce them to five. And I shall show you how. Erom 
the time when Abraham received the promise that his 
seed should be as the stars of heaven for multitude, to 
the time when Jacob went to Padan-Aram to seek a 
wife, according to the ordinary chronology, about 160 
years had elapsed. And what, according to the in- 
spired record, was the number of the descendants of 



44 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

Abraham in the line of Isaac then ? Just three per- 
sons, — Isaac himself, and his two sons, Jacob and 
Esau. Esau indeed did not properly belong to the 
promised seed, but he was the son of Isaac, and there- 
fore we take him in. Now from this latter time to the 
Exodus was another period of 270 years; and if God 
was obliged to increase the descendants of Abraham 
at the same rate as before, or if we must calculate 
that increase as the Bishop of Natal has done, what 
ought to have been their number at the Exodus '? It 
is a plain question of the rule of three. If 160 give 
3, what will 270 give ? The answer is, just 5 and a 
fraction. 

On the other hand, however, taking another starting 
point, (for the whole mystery lies in it,) and other data 
furnished by the history, but applying again the self- 
same principle, you may make the Israelites at the 
Exodus more than a hundred millions of grown-up 
men above twenty years of age ; and I shall show you 
again how. ^ATien Jacob was about eighty years of age 
he had not a single son upwards of twenty years of age. 
Nay, probably, he had not a son of any age. But thirty- 
three years after, when Joseph was twenty-two, he 
had eleven sons, all upwards of twenty years of age. 
"Well, from that period when Joseph the youngest of 
the eleven sons was twenty-two, and when several of 
the sons of Jacob must have had infant children of 
their own, on to the time of the Exodus, there would be 
seven periods of thirty-three years each. Now, say- 
ing nothing as to the greater likelihood of young men 



Number of the Israelites. 45 

between twenty and forty years of age having numer- 
ous families compared with, an old man of eighty, all 
I say is, that God was able, if he pleased, to continue 
the same rate of increase to the sons and their descen- 
dants, which Jacob their father had enjoyed, down to 
the period of the Exodus. And if he had done so, 
what would have been the number of adult men then 1 
To make the calculation simpler, let us give up one of 
the eleven sons of Jacob, and suppose there had been 
only ten ; then you can count the number as easily as 
you can count your fingers. The ten sons of Jacob, 
would, in the first period of thirty-three years, have 
had one hundred sons above twenty years of age. 

These in the 2d period would have had - - - 1000 

These in the 3d period - - 10,000 

These in the 4th period 100,000 

These in the 5th period a million 

These in the 6th period - - - - - -10 millions 

And these in the 7th period - - - 100 millions. 

And observe, these 100 millions are all sons of one 
generation, and all above twenty years of age. By 
leaving out Jacob at first, and all the fathers after- 
wards we have been speaking only of the sons, up- 
wards of twenty years old, produced in each period of 
thirty-three years. So that if you take in the fathers and 
grandfathers who may have been alive at the time of 
the Exodus, I know not how many millions more you 
must add to this number of adult men, probably 
8 or 10 millions at least. But keeping by the num- 
ber of 100 millions, that is more than 166 times what 



46 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

Moses tells us they were, — namely, 600,000 men 
above twenty years of age, able to go forth to war. 

And what now are we to say of Bishop Colenso's 
5000 warriors, as the largest number of Israelites at 
the time of the Exodus which the narrative warrants 
us to believe in ? (for by another calculation he brings 
them down to thirteen or fourteen hundred.) One or 
two other remarks may be made on it. Bishop Colenso 
believes the narrative of the first chapter of Exodus. 
At least he reasons from it, when it suits his purpose, 
in support of his own conclusions. Xow, what does 
it tell us of the growth of the Israelites in Egypt ? 
It tells us that between the death of Joseph and the 
birth of Moses the children of Israel increased so 
rapidly that Pharaoh and the Egyptians became 
alarmed, and took measures to check their growth. 
First, they made their lives bitter with hard bondage ; 
but that would not serve the purpose — for " the more 
they were afflicted, the more they multiplied and 
grew." iSText, Pharaoh sought to persuade the Hebrew 
miclwives to kill every Israelitish man-child at the 
time of his birth; but neither would that serve the 
purpose of the Egyptians — for " the midwives feared 
God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded." 
And next, the king of Egypt sent forth his decree — 
the most barbarous, the most cruel, the most fiendish 
decree we read of in all the history of our lost and 
miserable world — (that of Herod, to kill all the chil- 
dren of Bethlehem, was nothing to it) — the decree, 
namely, that " every son born to the Israelites should 



Number of the Israelites. 47 

be cast into the river." Well, what awful increase 
was it, according to Bishop Colenso, that drove Pharaoh 
and his people to such extremities ? What was it 
that so alarmed the greatest monarch and greatest 
nation of the time 1 Let us see. That increase was 
before the birth of Moses, who was of the bishop's 
third generation, and must therefore have been wit- 
nessed in the second generation ; and what was the 
number of the adult males of Israel then 1 Just 243 ! 
Yes, according to the calculations of this arithmetical 
bishop, Pharaoh must have been deprived of all his 
propriety and self-possession, and goaded to monstrous 
injustice and cruelty, by the fact that there were 243 
peaceful and unarmed shepherds in his dominions, 
whose alarming numbers he could by no means keep 
down ! ! 

And even this is not all. The same context, from 
which the bishop draws arguments when it suits 
his purpose, tells us that the land of Goshen even 
then was " filled " with the children of Israel. Now, 
the land of Goshen may be stated, roundly, to have 
been about 100 miles in length by 50 in breadth, and 
therefore to have contained 5000 square miles. Sup- 
pose now that 7 be added to the 243, so as to make 
the number of the Israelites 250, the result will be 
that the land was "filled with them," when a single 
grown-up Israelite was to be found in every 20 square 
miles ! 

Such are the absurdities to which the Bishop's 
calculations have reduced him — to which, at least, 



48 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

faith in his calculations would reduce us. And I 
leave it now to every one to say for himself whether 
this difficulty about the number of the Israelites at 
the Exodus be not a difficulty of the Bishop's own 
creation ? 

True, it has been felt by others also; but never, 
I will be bold to say, by any reader of the Bible 
who firmly believed in God's promises to Abraham 
and Jacob, or in his covenanted providence to their 
seed. Ko one believing these, and keeping them in 
mind, and knowing that "whatsoever pleaseth the 
Lord that doeth He in heaven, and earth, and in the 
sea, and in all deep places," can have any difficulty in 
the matter. He will rest in the plain statements of 
Scripture until it can be shown that they have been 
either altered or interpolated ; and he will remember 
that throughout all Scripture these statements have 
been repeated and appealed to as true. Thus Moses 
said to the Israelites themselves, forty years after the 
Exodus, when their numbers were nearly the same : 
u The Lord your God hath multiplied you, and be- 
hold ye are this day as the stars of heaven for multi- 
tude : the Lord God of your fathers make you a thou- 
sand times as many more as you are, and bless you as 
he has promised you."* Again, the Psalmist says : 
" He increased His people greatly in Egypt, and made 
them stronger than their enemies."t And so in other 
Scriptures, not forgetting the testimony of the apos- 
tle : " Therefore sprang there even of one, and him 

* Deut. i. 10 ; x. 22. f Ps. cv. 24. 



Number of the First-lorn. 49 

as good as dead, as many as the stars of the sky in 
multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea-shore 
innumerable."* 

The preceding remarks will apply to other arith- 
metical difficulties in Bishop Colenso's volume, such as 
those found in the numbers of theDanites andLevites.f 

But it is time to pass to another of the Bishop's 
self-created difficulties ; and the next I propose to 
notice, which is even more glaringly of his own mak- 
ing than that which we have considered, relates to the 
" number of the first-borns in Israel, compared with 
the number of the adult males." This, like the former, 
is a difficulty on which he lays great stress, and as to 
which he notices and answers, and, as he thinks, re- 
futes what has been said by others. You will at once 
perceive what the Bishop's difficulty is from the fol- 
lowing paragraphs, which contain his exposition of 
it:— 

u All the first-horn males, from a month old and upwards, of 
those that were numbered, were twenty and two thousand two 
hundred and threescore and thirteen. Num. iii. 43. 

" Let us see what this statement implies, when treated as 
a simple matter of fact. For this purpose I quote the words 
of Kurtz, iii., p. 209: — 'If there were 600,000 males of 
twenty years and upwards, the whole number of males may 
be reckoned at 900,000, [he elsewhere reckons 1,000,000,] in 
which case there would be only one first-born to forty-two 
[forty-four] males. In other words, the number of boys in 
every family must have been on the average forty-two? 

'' This Avill be seen at once if we consider that the rest of 

* Heb. xi. 12. \ See Appendix, Note A. 

J) 



50 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

the 600,000 males were not first-borns, and, therefore, each 
of these must have had one or other of the 22,273 as the first- 
born of his own family, — except, of course, any cases where 
the first-born of any family was a daughter, or was dead, of 
which we shall speak presently. 

; 'And these were not the first born on the father's side, as 
Michaelis supposes, so that a man might hare many wives 
and many children, but only one first-born, as was the case 
with Jacob himself. They are expressly stated to have been 
the first-born on the mother's side — ' all the first-born that 
openeth the matrix,' Num. iii, 12. So that, according to the 
story in the Pentateuch, every mother of Israel must have had 
on the average forty-two sons!" 

Now, though no absolute impossibility, it is cer- 
tainly a very improbable thing, that every mother in 
Israel had on the average forty-two sons. But from 
what does this conclusion arise ? Solely from the 
explanation which the Bishop gives to the expression, 
a first-born son. He refuses to confine this expression 
in this case to the rising generation — those who were 
still children in the houses of their parents — and con- 
tends that it must include all who had ever been first- 
born sons, to whatever generation they belonged. He 
argues that children, fathers, grandfathers, and great 
grandfathers, if still alive, and if they had, in their 
younger days, been the first-born of their own parents, 
must be included here. ]S T o wonder, then, that the 
mothers must have had so many sons, if fathers, grand- 
fathers, and even great-grandfathers are to be in- 
cluded in the number.""" 

* If. any should fail to see that this is really the effect of 



Number of the First-born. 51 

The Bishop virtually takes up this objection to his 
explanation of the term first-born, for he answers the 
allegation that no heads of families were included 
among the first-born who were to be redeemed, but 
only their children. And what does he say to it 1 
His answer is that this is a mere assumption, not 
warranted by anything that is found in the Scripture. 
Now, let us grant for a moment that it is a mere 
assumption : it is no more so than his own interpre- 
tation of the term first-born is. Scripture does not 
expressly tell us of what generation the first-born that 
were to be redeemed were. It was enough that those 
should know this who had to number them — it was 
enough that they should understand whether they 
were to number first-born children of the rising 
generation alone, or those of former generations also. 
But I contend that the former is the natural meaning 
of the expression, and the only natural meaning 
which in the circumstances it could bear. For the 
term first-born is plainly a relative term. It means 
the first-born of some father and mother, or some 
family : and in this case, when they were to be re- 
deemed, it must be limited to the first-born of existing 
families. Take in the father and grandfather of an 

the Bishop's explanation of the term first-born, they may 
perhaps see it thus : — The number of the first-borns, accord- 
ing to the explanation, determines the number of mothers ; 
then the whole number of males is divided among these 
mothers as sons, including, of course, fathers, grandfathers, 
&c, and their own husbands also. 



52 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

existing family because they had been first-borns in 
their own day, and you run into absurdity and - non- 
sense. For whose first-born is the head of a family 
now, his father being dead, and his father's family 
dispersed % Is he his own 1 Is he the first-born of 
his own house ? Or suppose a first-born father re- 
siding in his first-born son's house, and that first-born 
son having, like his ancestor Jacob, four wives, each 
of whom has had as yet but one son ; here are six 
males in one house with none besides but the mothers, 
and all of them are first-borns ! Whose first-born was 
the father ? "Who was to redeem all these 1 Or how 
was the redemption to be accomplished in such a 
case 1 It would be easy to ask many such like 
questions, founded on the Bishop's interpretation. 

But let us return to Scripture. The Bishop says 
that the view we take is unwarranted by anything to 
be found in Scripture. I deny this. I say that Scrip- 
ture clearly enough defines who were meant by the 
first-born that were to be redeemed, and does so in 
the very verse following that which he has cited to 
support his own view of the matter. He cites for 
this purpose Num. hi. 12 : now, if he had read on, 
he would have found in the 13th verse both the 
reason for the redemption of the first-born, and a 
sufficient indication of the persons who were meant. 
That verse reads, " Because all the first-born are 
mine : for on the day that I smote all the first-born 
in the land of Egypt, I hallowed unto me all the 
first-born of Israel, both man and beast : mine they 



Number of the First-born. 53 

shall be : I am the Lord." Now all I have to ask 
as to this hallowing of the first-born is, Was it to 
have the power of an ex post facto law 1 Was it to 
go back and include all that ever had been first-born 
in former generations — fathers, grandfathers, and 
great-grandfathers in Israel ? Or was it to include 
only those who were first-borns on the day mentioned 
— i. e., first-borns of the then rising generation ; and 
then, afterwards, the first-borns of all future genera- 
tions ? Most certainly the latter is the only rational 
interpretation of that verse ; and it clearly defines 
the class of persons who were to be numbered as first- 
borns, and therefore redeemed. 

Accordingly, as if to show more unquestionably 
that children or young persons only were meant, 
they were to be numbered " from a month old and 
upwards." And further, if anything could add to 
the certainty of this conclusion, it would be the 
fact that these first-born of Israel, who were hal- 
lowed to God on the day of Egypt's doom, are set 
over against the first-born of Egypt, who were then 
destroyed, and must be supposed therefore to have been 
of the same class, the same age. And who were included 
in the first-born of Egypt on that awful night of the 
Lord"? Were fathers, and grandfathers, and great- 
grandfathers, as well as children, involved in the 
terrible catastrophe of that night 1 By no means : 
many a father in Egypt may have been a first-born in 
his day, but it was not he, but his first-born that 
perished. Pharaoh, for instance, had been, in all 



M The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

probability, the first-born of bis father, seeing he 
succeeded to the throne ; but Pharaoh himself did 
not die, but only his first-born son. For " it came to 
pass that at midnight the Lord smote all the first- 
born in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of 
Pharaoh that sat upon the throne, to the first-born 
of the captive that was in the dungeon, and all 
the first-born of cattle." 

Well, this question as to the meaning of the term 
first-born, in this connection, being, we trust, satis- 
factorily settled, the question remains, What effect 
has it upon the Bishop's calculations 1 And the 
answer is, that it has a most material effect. He cal- 
culated the proportion of the first-born to the whole 
number of males of all ages, 900,000 or a million, 
when he should have taken their proportion to the 
number of male children, or young persons of the 
rising generation, say 300,000, at the utmost. We 
can, of course, but guess the number : "but this we 
reckon a sufficiently high estimate. And that would 
at once reduce the number of sons, which each mother 
in Israel, of that generation at least, required to have, 
from 42 to 14; a very important reduction evidently, 
for there is no improbability in the supposition that 
mothers in Israel would often have that number of 
sons. 

Then, if we suppose polygamy to have less or more 
prevailed in Israel at this time — that also would reduce 
the proportion of the first-born. Bishop Colenso 
says, " JSo ; " for he contends, in opposition to 



Number of the First-bom. 55 

Michaelis, a man of infinitely more knowledge on 
such subjects than he can pretend to, that polygamy 
would have no effect, because the first-borns spoken 
of are expressly stated to have been those on the 
mother's side — "all the first-born that openeth the 
matrix," (Numbers iii. 12). But there is another 
question that must be asked and answered, before this 
can sustain his conclusion, namely, What mothers 
must be supposed to be meant ? Whether those only 
who were the proper, legitimate wives of their hus- 
bands, according to the original and only Divine 
marriage law ; or, wives and concubines also 1 We 
contend that the former alone are to be supposed ; 
for to suppose God to have hallowed to himself the 
sons of the latter class of mothers — making them 
equally a part of His own peculiar inheritance, and 
therefore to be redeemed — would be to suppose Him 
to have given a direct and solemn sanction to the 
violation of His own law; which, we may be sure, He 
would not do. He tolerated polygamy, as He did 
slavery, but He did not sanction it. He never set 
the seal of His approbation upon it. We know of no 
instance in the Abrahamic family in which the son 
of a concubine inherited the temporal rights and 
honours of the first-born ; and much less can we 
suppose that such a son would be advanced to the 
spiritual dignity, the priesthood : and that, we must 
remember, was really the question here ; for these 
first-borns being redeemed, the tribe of Levi were to 
take their place. 



56 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

But not to enlarge, I would only remind you 
further on this point, that there is an express law 
of Moses which seems to settle this question as 
to the effect of polygamy. It is contained in Deu- 
teronomy xxi. 15-17, and may be stated shortly 
thus: that when a man had two wives, one loved 
and the other hated (like Eachel and Leah), and 
when his eldest son was the child of the latter, he 
should have no power to transfer the birth-right to 
the son of the former. Now if God, by Moses, re- 
quired His people to act on this principle, may we 
not safely conclude that he would first establish the 
principle by acting on it himself? It seems plain, 
then, that polygamy would undoubtedly tend to 
diminish the number of first-borns that were to be 
redeemed, in comparison with the number of other 
sons. Three mothers in a family, for instance, would 
require to have only about four and a-half sons each 
(Bishop Colenso's chosen rate) to give fourteen sons 
for one first-born. 

There are other considerations that might have 
been adduced on this subject, to show how unsound, 
or at least unsafe, the calculations of the Bishop in 
reference to it are. He himself allows for cases in 
which the first-born might be dead. In other cases, 
the eldest child of a family would be a daughter ; and 
then, probably at least, there would be no first-born 
son to be redeemed in the family at all Nor is it 
presumptuous to add, that there may have been pecu- 
liar causes in operation among the Israelites, to 



The Numbers Compared with the Land. 57 

diminish the proportion of the first-borns referred to, 
of which we know nothing. Bishop Colenso reasons 
as if the grand object and design of Scripture were to 
give us information on subjects of this description — 
statistical information — while nothing can be more 
certain than that these subjects are introduced only 
incidentally, so far as necessary for higher ends ; and 
therefore that the information thus given is neither 
complete, nor in all cases very clear. How, indeed, 
could it have been so, unless the Bible histories had 
been a thousand-fold more extensive and minute than 
they are 1 — But I have said enough, I trust, to show 
that the difficulty in regard to the number of the 
first-born which Bishop Colenso has found in the 
Pentateuch, and of which he tries to make so much, 
is mainly of his own creation, and that it need not 
stumble any one who has confidence in Jesus Christ 
as the " Faithful and true Witness," himself " the 
First-born among the many brethren,"—" the Begin- 
ning" also and " First-born from the dead, who in all 
things has the pre-eminence." 

I shall only in the present lecture notice, and that 
very shortly, a third difficulty relating to the numbers 
of the Israelites as spoken of in the Pentateuch : 
" the number of the Israelites as compared with the 
extent of the land of Canaan." This is a difficulty 
not only of Bishop Colenso's own creation, in the 
sense in which I use the expression, but apparently 
an entirely original one. I know of no author who 



58 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

has started it but himself. Of its character I shall 
leave you to judge, after it has been stated and 
exposed. 

The passage on which the Bishop founds it is 
Exod. xxiii. 27-30, containing the following promise 
of Jehovah to His people : "I will send my fear be- 
fore thee, and I will destroy the people to whom thou 
shalt come ; and I will make all thine enemies turn 
their backs unto thee. And I will send hornets 
before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the 
Canaanite, and the Hittite from before thee, i" will 
not drive them out before thee in one year ; Jest the 
land become desolate, and the beast of the field multi- 
ply against thee. But by little and little I will drive 
them out from before thee, until thou be increased, 
and inherit the land." Now what does Bishop 
Colenso make of this 1 He takes "the whole land as 
divided among the tribes in the time of Joshua, in- 
cluding the countries beyond the Jordan," and argues 
that, as it contained only 11,000 square miles, and as 
the Israelites were "more than two millions of people," 
their country would be as densely peopled as the 
agricultural counties of England — Norfolk, Suffolk, 
and Essex — and twenty times more so than the colony 
of Natal. And as neither England nor Natal is in 
any danger of being overrun by wild beasts, how can 
it be believed that there was any such danger in the 
case of Canaan 1 These are not the Bishop's words, 
but they are a fair statement of his argument against 
the credibility of the Mosaic narrative — in this case 



The Numbers Compared with the Land. 59 

against the credibility of the words of Jehovah him- 
self. 

Now mark carefully how this difficulty arises. It 
has no foundation in Scripture, but only in Bishop 
Colenso's mutilation of Scripture. He does not 
quote the whole statement on the subject, but stops 
short before he comes to the verse which contains the 
definite description of the territory referred to. That 
verse, the 31st, says, "And I will set thy bounds from 
the Red Sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and 
from the desert unto the river; for I will deliver the 
inhabitants of the land into your hand; and thou 
shalt drive them out before thee." Here is the de- 
scription of the promised territory to which the pre- 
vious verses referred ; and surely common honesty, 
not to speak of that supreme devotion to truth which 
Bishop Colenso so frequently professes, demanded that 
this verse should have been quoted ; for when it is 
considered, his objection is without the shadow of a 
foundation. What was the extent of the territory 
thus promised to the Israelites ? I am prepared to 
prove that instead of 11,000, it must have contained 
about 56,000 square miles : that is more than five 
times the extent which the Bishop allows. All this 
territory was not possessed by Israel in the days of 
Joshua. It was never fully subdued or occupied by 
them till the days of David. But this was the extent 
of the land promised to them — first to Abraham, and 
now again to Moses — and, therefore, that to which 
the words of Jehovah, on which Bishop Colenso 



60 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

founds his difficulty, referred. We cannot, of course, 
say whether he knew this or not ; but for his own 
sake, and his reader's sake, he should have gone on 
and quoted the whole passage. For, notice the 
strange complexion of his argument: 'Because the 
Israelites, in the days of Joshua, were perfectly able 
to people a fifth part of the promised land, so as to 
keep it clear of wild beasts, therefore the promise 
that they should not receive the whole land at once, 
lest they should not be able so to people it, is incred- 
ible : ' in other words, ' The begun, literal fulfilment of 
the Divine promise is a clear demonstration of the 
falsehood of that 'promise" Such is the logic of this 
calculating and critical devotee of "the Truth," by 
which he endeavours to persuade Christian men that 
the books of Moses are an incredible romance, and 
the authentication of them by Jesus Christ an ignor- 
ant mistake.* 

* It is plainly ridiculous to suppose the Israelites, in the 
days of Joshua, equally able to destroy wild beasts out of 
their land as the inhabitants of England or the colonists of 
Natal of the present day. The latter possess lire-arms, 
horses, and other means of clearing a country and keep- 
ing it clear of wild beasts, of which the former had none. 
Palestine also supplied a much more complete and extensive 
cover for wild beasts than either England or the colony of 
Natal. And from this cause, doubtless, the Israelites seem 
to have been unable to keep even the small portion of the 
promised land, which they possessed from the beginning, 
completely free of wild beasts. For how often in all the Old 
Testament history do we read of these beasts being found in 



Conclusion. 61 

In conclusion, let me exhort you then to cleave to 
the testimony of Jesus Christ on this subject, and on 
all subjects, whoever may gainsay or endeavour to 
falsify it. Especially let me exhort you to come to 
Him as a Saviour, that you may obtain eternal life 
through Him, and may have that strongest and best 
of all inducements to repose and rejoice in all His 
words. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ that you 
may be saved. And for this purpose you must be- 
lieve in the writings of Moses also. How forcibly is 
this stated in the text. " Had ye believed Moses," 
said Christ to the Jews, "ye would have believed me ; 
for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writ- 
ings, how shall ye believe my words'?" This holds 
true of us as well as the Jews. We cannot believe 
in Jesus Christ — we cannot know Jesus Christ — 
without believing the writings of Moses. The person 
of Christ, the office of Christ, the work of Christ, as 
an atoning Saviour, can never be well understood 
without the light cast on them by the writings of 
Moses. The Pentateuch is the basis not only of the 
Old Testament, but also of the New, and to lose our 
faith in it is to let go all Christian faith and hope, 
and fall back into the darkness of heathenism, or into 
the blackness of darkness of universal scepticism. 

the land ? Samson, David, David's chief heroes, and others, 
are celebrated for their single-handed encounters with lions, 
bears, and other wild beasts. Solomon speaks of " the lions' 
dens and mountains of the leopards " as existing in his day : 
and so in other Scriptures. 



LECTURE III.* 

" The word of the Lord is tried." — Ps. xviii. 30. 

One thing that is not unlikely to render Bishop Col- 
enso's volume very imposing and misleading in the 
case of multitudes, is the great deference and devotion 
to Truth which its author affects. Professions like 
the following are of frequent occurrence in the pre- 
face and other parts of the volume : — " Our duty 
surely is to follow the Truth wherever it leads, and to 
leave consequences in the hands of God. God's will 
be done. The law of Truth must be obeyed." ISow, 
besides that Bishop Colenso is already self-convicted 
of one of the most treacherous violations of the law of 
Truth that can easily be conceived — that of occupying 
a position in which he solemnly binds himself to 
maintain and teach a creed which he disbelieves and 
repudiates — besides this, there seems to be something 
in the peculiar constitution or temperament of his 
mind that renders such professions of devotion to Truth 
almost ludicrous. Let him take up any Scriptural 
subject, however true, and grand, and venerable in 
itself, his idiosyncrasy immediately leads him to turn 
aside from what is true, and grand, and venerable in 
it, and concern himself with something questionable, 

* Delivered January 25, 1863. 



Institution of the Passover. 63 

or difficult, or inconceivably little, which he has 
found or fancied in the inspired narrative in reference 
to it. He is especially prone to this, if he can thereby 
introduce any process of arithmetic or of mensuration 
into the interpretation of the Word of God. 

That in saying this I neither misrepresent nor cari- 
cature him, will be evident when I tell you what he 
says of the institution of the passover. Here three 
grand subjects naturally present themselves, sufficient 
to interest if not to solemnize any ordinary mind: 
1st, The redemption of Israel, which the passover 
was designed to commemorate, the greatest event 
of its kind in all the history of our world; 2d, The 
commemorative festival itself, which has been and 
continues to be observed by the Jews from the days 
of Moses even until now ; which was observed also 
by the God-man and his little family on that event- 
ful night in which he was betrayed, and which, on 
this account, has in the sacred season of Easter left 
its memorial among almost all the nations of Christ- 
endom. And then 3dly, there was the faith displayed 
by Moses in appointing, and the Israelites in observ- 
ing, the passover, to celebrate a redemption which was 
still future. This was so remarkable a display of 
faith in God, that it has obtained a place on that 
noble monument of the achievements of ancient faith, 
the eleventh chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews : 
" Through faith he kept the passover, and the sprink- 
ling of blood, lest he that destroyed the first-born 
should touch them." 



64 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

But what does Bishop Colenso make of the Mosaic 
narrative concerning the institution and observance of 
the passover 1 ? Why, passing over all these things, 
as if he had not the faintest glimmering of either 
their truth or their importance, he sets himself to 
show that that narrative must be an incredible fiction. 
And how 1 First, by a contemptibly shallow and per- 
verse, if not dishonest, criticism, he makes the direc- 
tions given by Jehovah for the observance of the 
passover to have been given the same day on which 
the feast was to be observed : so that there could be 
only twelve hours (for the Bishop is very definite as 
to the time) for the circulation of the intelligence 
among all the people, and for all necessary pre- 
parations for the observance. The criticism is to this 
effect — Because Jehovah, in giving his commands 
to Moses, says, " 1 will pass through the land of 
Egypt this night, and smite all the first-born in 
the land of Egypt, both man and beast" — there- 
fore the command must have been given on the 
same day (why not the same night 1) on which the 
passover was to be observed. Now, to say nothing 
more on the point, I have to mention that there are at 
least half-a-dozen of instances in the same chapter in 
which the same expression in the original occurs, and 
in which it must he and is interpreted as meaning, 
not the same day or night on which the thing was 
spoken, but the same day or night which had already 
been spoken of, — the self -same day or night, as our 
translators have rendered it, which had already been 
mentioned in the preceding part of the narrative. 



Institution of the Passover. 65 

But this is only the first step of the Bishop's demon- 
stration of the falsehood of the Mosaic narrative. He 
next numbers the lambs which the Israelites must have 
required for the keeping of the passover, which he 
makes 150,000 ; and this he does, not because of 
there being any difficulty in their rinding so many 
lambs, but solely that he might calculate how many 
sheep they must have possessed, which he makes two 
millions ; — not that there is any great difficulty in 
supposing that two millions of pastoral people might 
have two millions of sheep, but this calculation was 
necessary that he might measure the ground required 
for grazing so many sheep. And here we are regaled 
with reports from sheep farmers all the way from 
Australia and New Zealand, as well as Natal, inform- 
ing us how many sheep may be grazed upon an acre 
of land. And all for what purpose 1 For the sole 
purpose, apparently, of proving that when the Divine 
command was given for the observance of the pass- 
over, many of the Israelites would be too far scattered 
over the land of Goshen feeding their sheep, to make 
it possible for them, in the space of twelve hours, to 
be warned and collected for the observance of the 
feast. Now, was there ever such laborious trifling 
heard of before? Much that is childish and inane 
is to be found in books of biblical criticism and in- 
terpretation ; but I do not believe that, since that 
science began, there was anything ever written and 
printed to match, or at least to outmatch, this speci- 
men. Yet this is of a piece with all that the Bishop 



66 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

says of the passover and the Exodus, and indeed of 
almost all other matters brought before us in his 
volume. 

The directions in regard to the passover must have 
been conveyed to the Israelites at least four days before 
its observance ; for the passover-lambs were to be 
selected on the tenth day of the month — the 
observance being on the fourteenth. But the pro- 
bability is (a probability suggested at least by the 
narrative)* that they were given at the beginning of 
the month — thus giving the Israelites twelve days, 
instead of twelve hours, to prepare both for the 
observance of the feast, and for the Exodus from 
Egypt, which was immediately to follow. Eor let it 
be remembered that from the day when the Passover 
was commanded, the day and hour for the flight 
from Egypt also were fixed. — On the morning after 
the Passover the Israelites were to leave their various 
dwellings, and to hasten to a common rendezvous, 
namely, Rameses, which was situated about the centre 
of the land of Goshen. — And we may easily conceive 
what a people, thirsting for liberty, sighing for liberty, 
straining, "like greyhounds in the leash," for the 
moment of release, might do in twelve days, in pre- 
paration for liberty. Bishop Colenso makes it a 
difficulty where they would get tents in the wilderness. 
Surely twelve days were sufficient to enable every 
family to provide itself with a tent, if indeed the 
Israelites generally would not be so provided already : 
* Ex. xii. 2 ; Kitto's Pict. Palest., &c. 



Preparations for the Exodus. 67 

especially considering the simple construction of an 
Oriental tent — a few stakes and cords with a piece of 
coarse cloth. It is a still greater difficulty with him 
how they would carry their tents. But surely twelve 
days were sufficient to allow them to bring home, 
from any part of the land, as many camels and oxen, 
and other beasts of burden, as would be necessary for 
the purpose, and so have all things so prepared by the 
day before the passover, as to require the shortest 
possible time for lading the beasts and setting out, 
next morning. But there was another difficulty still : 
How could the Israelites, summoned, as the Bishop 
says, at midnight, at a moment's notice, do what they 
were commanded to do, namely, borrow, or ask, jewels 
of gold and silver, and raiment from the Egyptians, 
and so spoil the Egyptians 1 To which we answer 
again, twelve, or even two or three days, afforded 
plenty of time for doing this. And let it be 
remembered that this command, at least, the Israelites 
had received at the very commencement of the contest 
between Moses and Pharaoh, perhaps twelve months 
before the Exodus. 

But, passing from these things, permit me to men- 
tion a fact which would greatly aid the Israelites in 
all these preparations, and in many other points of 
view. It is a fact which, I think, can be clearly 
established from the inspired narrative, though no 
commentator, so far as I have observed, has noticed 
it, that the two last and heaviest plagues of Egypt 
were inflicted in immediate connection with each 



68 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

other. The three days of supernatural darkness, 
putting a stop to all labour and energy among the 
Egyptians, and filling them with profoundest terror, 
immediately preceded the night of the destruction 
of the first-born. There was no interval between 
them : the last of these days of darkness and dismay 
ushered in the night of still more tremendous dark- 
ness and sorrow. And how would this circumstance 
operate ? It would obviously allow all Israelites that 
might be in the service of the Egyptians, or that 
might be occupied in any public works throughout 
the land of Egypt, to return to their own families, 
two or three days before the Passover, so as to be all 
present at the feast, and ready for the flight. Nay, it 
would not only set them at liberty, but drive them 
home ; for, as there was light in all the dwellings 
of the Israelites, every one who possibly could, whether 
Israelite or Egyptian, would forsake the abodes of 
darkness, and take refuge in the habitations of light. 
And there is another part of the history which this 
fact may sufficiently explain. In the third chapter 
of Exodus, it is said, "That every woman shall 
borrow of her neighbour, and of her that sojourn eth 
in her house, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and 
raiment : and ye shall put them upon your sons," &c. 
Xow, there is a difficulty here in seeing how the 
Israelites could have Egyptian ladies — as is evidently 
taken for granted — women who had jewels of gold 
and silver and fine raiment in their possession — 
sojourning with them in their houses. But the three 



The Exodus. 69 

days of darkness immediately preceding the nrght of 
the Passover sufficiently explains the matter. Tor 
nothing could be more likely than that Egyptian 
women, even the most wealthy and delicate of them, 
who had any friends among the Israelites, would, 
during these days of darkness, be glad to take up their 
residence in the houses of the Israelites. — But this by 
the way. 

The Bishop's next difficulty on this subject is to un- 
derstand how the Israelites could be brought from all 
parts of Goshen to Eameses, and then how they 
could march from Eameses to Succoth, all, as he says, 
on the same day ? Here are his words : — 

" We are required to believe that, in one single day, the 
order to start was communicated suddenly, at midnight, to 
every single family of every town and village, throughout a 
tract of country as large as Hertfordshire, but ten times as 
thickly peopled ; — that, in obedience to such order, having 
first ' borrowed ' very largely from their Egyptian neighbours 
in all directions, (though, if we are to suppose Egyptians 
occupying the same territory with the Hebrews, the extent of 
it must be very much increased,) they then came in from all 
parts of the land of Goshen to Eameses, bringing with them 
the sick and infirm, the young and the aged ; further, that, 
since receiving the summons, they had sent out to gather in all 
their flocks and herds, spread over so wide a district, and had 
driven them also to Eameses ; — and, lastly, that having done 
all this, since they were roused at midnight, they were started 
again from Eameses that very same day, and marched on to 
Succoth, not leaving a single sick or infirm person, a single 
woman in childbirth, or even a ' single hoof,' Exod. x. 26, 
behind them ! This is, undoubtedly, what the story in the 



70 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

book of Exodus requires us to believe. (Exod. xii. 
31-41, 51.)" 

Now all this we confidently deny. The story of 
Exodus requires us to believe nothing of this. It is 
a pure romance, manufactured by ignorance or infi- 
delity. "What the book of Exodus and the other 
books of Moses lead us to believe is this : that on the 
morning after the passover, the Israelites, having all 
things previously prepared, started from their various 
dwellings for the general rendezvous, m t hich was Barneses. 
Tins was on the morning of the fourteenth day, say at 
sunrise ; for as the Jews counted their days from 
sunset to sunset, the evening of the fourteenth day 
preceded the morning of that day. I shall suppose 
many of them to have had a greater distance to travel 
to Barneses than Bishop Colenso does — say fifteen or 
twenty miles. Moses himself, being in the metro- 
polis of Egypt on the night of the passover, would 
have about twenty-five miles to travel in order to 
reach Barneses. Let us give them all, then, six or 
seven hours for this journey, they would all be assem- 
bled in and around Barneses by noon, or early in the 
afternoon of the fourteenth day. Allowing several 
hours for rest, and for receiving further instructions, 
all would be prepared, without either difficulty or 
confusion, to commence the journey from Barneses to 
Succoth at sunset, the beginning of the fifteenth day, 
which is the very time specified in the books of 
Numbers and Deuteronomy. For in the one it is 
said that "they journeyed from Barneses to Succoth on 



The Exodus. 71 

the morrow after the Passover," i. e., the fifteenth of 
the month ; and in the other, " That they left Egypt 
at the going down of the sun."* 

The first collective journey, then, was a night 
journey; and they would reach Succoth, which was 
perhaps twelve or fifteen miles from Eameses, by the 
morning of the fifteenth day. We need not wonder 
at their being made to march by night. They were 
well acquainted with the country, and, besides the 
pillar of fire which began from that time to guide 
them by night, they had the full moon shining on 
their path. They were in haste also, and, all things 
considered, it would be a manifest advantage to them 
to journey during the coolness of the night. And 
who can doubt that on the first night of their march, 
as the Psalmist says, " God brought forth His people 
with joy, and His chosen with gladness." He says, 
also, as if to rebuke beforehand some of the dreams of 
Bishop Colenso and others, " He brought them forth 
also with silver and gold ; there was not one feeble 
person among their tribes."f Infidels may believe 
this latter statement or not, as they please ; but there 
it stands, under the sanction of Divine inspiration, 
and all who have confidence in God's word and power 
will believe it, though all the infidels and infidel 
bishops in Christendom were combined to deny it — 
" The word of the Lord is tried." 

But there is one thing more to be noticed before 
leaving this subject of the Exodus. What Bishop 

* Num. xxxiii. 3 ; Deut. xvi. 6. f Ps. cv., 37, 43. 



72 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

Colenso has said of the sheep and cattle will be 
noticed, so far as necessary, afterwards. I notice 
now only what he says of the people. And here 
again are his words : — 

"And now let us see them on the march itself. If we 
imagine the people to have travelled through the open desert, 
in a wide body, fifty men abreast, as some suppose to 
have been the practice in the Hebrew armies, then, allowing 
an interval of a yard between each rank, the able-bodied 
warriors alone would have filled up the road for about seven 
miles, and the whole multitude would have formed a dense 
column more than twenty-two miles long, — so that the last of 
the body could not have been started till the front had 

advanced that distance, more than two days' journey for 

sxich a mixed company as this." 

ZSTow is not this most astounding 1 But it all 
originates out of the Bishop's self-willed purpose to 
have the Israelites ranked up in military fashion, 
"fifty men abreast." Truly there was no need, and 
there would be little thought among them, of this 
orderly and finical arrangement. They had a wide 
and open country before and around them, and could 
spread themselves as far as they pleased on either 
hand. Or they had the valley of the bitter lakes 
extending all the way they had to journey to the 
wilderness, and forming an easy and prepared path 
for them. 

But let us gratify the Bishop by forming them 
into one dense column : and this may be of some use 
to ourselves by showing us in what manner they 
might possibly be arranged when they had to pass 



The Exodus. 73 

through the Bed Sea. Take the Bishop's numbers, 
two millions of people, men, women, and children. 
Allow them 100,000 camels for the conveyance of 
women and children. Allow them further, 100,000 
oxen for the carriage of tents and other luggage. And 
allow them still further, 200,000 asses for the con- 
veyance of old men, and anything else you please. I 
should think that a fair and liberal allowance. Now 
I am prepared to show, that all this mass of men, 
women, and children, and beasts of burden, allowing 
room for free motion, would not occupy more space 
than two-thirds of a square mile. That is, form 
them into a column two-thirds of a mile in breadth, 
then they would extend to only one mile in length ; 
or form them into a column one-third of a mile in 
breadth, then they would extend to only two miles 
in length ; or, once more, form them into a column 
one-sixth of a mile, i. e., less than three hundred yards 
in breadth, then the column would not be more than 
four miles in length. And where, then, is the diffi- 
culty of seeing the possibility of this journey of the 
Israelites out of Egypt, and the perfect credibility of 
the inspired narrative concerning it 1 Remember 
that the enterprise was God's. It was of His plan- 
ning, and His performance. Neither Moses nor the 
Israelites could ever have taken a step in it without 
Him. But He had determined, by means of it, to 
glorify His own name throughout all ages ; and so He 
conducted and accomplished it by His mighty hand 
and His outstretched arm. And was He not able? 



74 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

"Who is like unto thee, Jehovah, among the 
gods 1 Who is like unto thee, glorious in holiness, 
fearful in praises, doing wonders 1 Thou in thy 
mercy hast led forth thy people which thou hast 
redeemed. Thou hast guided them in thy strength 
to thy holy habitation. Jehovah shall reign for ever 
and ever." 

In the foregoing remarks I have said all that I 
think necessary in answer to three chapters of Bishop 
Colenso's book ; those on the institution of the pass- 
over, the march out of Egypt, and the Israelites 
dwelling in tents. These, with many others of his 
difficulties, may all be ranged under the first head we 
specified, namely, difficulties which are of his own 
making. For though few of them are properly speak- 
ing original, yet all of them are set in so exaggerated 
a form by this so-called Christian bishop, that they 
derive almost all their force from his mode of present- 
ing them. And this is perhaps the most melancholy 
feature of the volume. For think for a moment of a 
man sworn to maintain and defend the whole volume 
of inspiration, and still voluntarily remaining under 
the obligation of his oath, putting forth evidently all 
his strength to demonstrate the falsehood of one of 
the most important sections of that volume ; and 
not only so, but suppressing some facts, misrepresent- 
ing others, and imagining others, to render this demon- 
stration the more plausible : all the while he speaks 
of himself as a devotee of Truth, and sheds crocodile 
tears, or at least utters pious sighs and groans, over the 



Sheep and Cattle in the Desert. 75 

pain he is likely to give to narrow but sincere-minded 
believers in divine revelation, — yes, and prays to Al- 
mighty God " to bless his feeble effort to advance the 
knowledge of His Truth in the world." What is to 
be thought of a man like this, or of his Scripture diffi- 
culties 1 

I now go on to consider one or two of those diffi- 
culties, in regard to which, though not entirely of his 
own creation, he has ignored or rejected obvious con- 
siderations which go far to lessen or remove them. 
And the first of these which I take up, is that " con- 
cerning the sheep and cattle of the Israelites in the 
desert." I cannot state the difficulty in the Bishop's 
own words, for the subject occupies no fewer than 
sixteen pages of his volume, and there is no one 
paragraph in which the substance of it is stated. But 
the main elements of his argument are these ; — that 
the Israelites had many flocks and herds ; that though 
we read of a miraculous provision for the people we do 
not read of any for the flocks and herds ; that we are 
led to believe that all the sheep and cattle of the 
Israelites always accompanied them in their journeys, 
and were always near them; and, finally, that we 
have no reason to believe that any change has taken 
place on the state of the wilderness since then ; — the 
conclusion from all which being, of course, that the 
flocks and herds of the Israelites could not possibly 
be supported for forty years, or even one year, in the 
wilderness : and therefore the Mosaic record is not 



76 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

true. In support of these things the Eishop quotes 
copiously from Canon Stanley and others, on the 
present state of the wilderness of Arabia, and endea- 
vours to refute all that they have said in vindication 
of the Mosaic history. 

Now I do not deny that there is a real difficulty 
here by which a sincere mind might be for a time 
stumbled when its attention was turned powerfully 
to it. But such a mind would soon discover the 
sophistry, or at least the weakness of this as an objec- 
tion against the truth of the narrative. It would see 
that it is an objection altogether founded on our ignor- 
ance. ' We have not been told, and therefore do not 
know, where and how the sheep and cattle of the 
Israelites were fed ; we may not even be able to conceive 
how they could be fed in the circumstances ; and there- 
fore we are to conclude they could not be fed.' That 
is the whole pith of the argument ; and it is plainly 
a most unsound and dangerous one. I am sure no 
rational man, no infidel even, would pledge a month's 
or a week's income on its validity. And ought he then 
to reject Scripture and so pawn the interests of his im- 
mortal soul on the security of such reasoning as this ? 
The sincere mind would soon reflect also that if God 
provided daily by such a stupendous miracle as that 
of the manna for the wants of the people, no fear but 
that some way or other he would provide suitably for 
their cattle too. Doth God take care of sheep and 
oxen % Yes, verily — He cares for all his creatures. 



Sheep and Cattle in the Desert 77 

" The insect that with tiny wing 
Just flits along one summer's ray, 
The floweret that the breath of spring 
Wakes into life for half a day, 
The smallest mote, the slenderest hair, 
All feel our common Father's care." 



If, then, a miracle had been needed for the support of 
the cattle of the Israelites a miracle would have been 
wrought. He that says, "the beasts of the field shall 
honour me, the dragons and the ostriches, because I 
give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, 
to give drink to my people, my chosen," — He certainly 
would not have permitted his people's flocks and herds 
to perish, when He himself had led them into the 
wilderness, for want either of food or drink. And if 
the intelligent believer were asked, Why then have we 
not been told all about the way in which the cattle 
were provided for ? — his answer would be ready : That 
Moses had something else to 1 tell us, and something 
far more important and necessary for us to know, 
than how two millions of sheep and oxen were fed in 
the wilderness. When we understand what God did 
for and with his people themselves, we can leave all 
that concerned their cattle to Him, or even to Moses, 
who, we are not to forget, had been a shepherd for 
forty years in that same wilderness. 

Well, but these reflections of the sincere believer 
in scripture furnish no answer to Bishop Colenso — as 
they are not designed to do. What then have we to 
say to his allegations 1 We answer, we do not admit 



78 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

all his postulates or premisses. There are two of them 
especially which we impugn, and which he must 
demonstrate much more conclusively than he has done 
before his argument can have any weight whatever : 
namely, 1st, that all the flocks and herds of the Israel- 
ites always accompanied them in all their journeys, 
and were never separated from them ; and 2d, that 
no change has taken place on the wilderness of Arabia 
from the days of Moses till now. It belongs to him 
to prove, not to us to disprove, these allegations ; 
but that it may be seen that they are not beyond ques- 
tion, we shall make a few observations on them. 

It has perhaps been very generally taken for 
granted by commentators and others, that the flocks 
and herds of the Israelites accompanied them in all 
their wanderings, mixed up, so to speak, with their 
armies and encampments • that they left Egypt in one 
body with the people, passed with them through the 
Eed Sea, journeyed with them to Sinai, and remained 
with them there for nearly twelve months, before the 
Mount. This I say has been commonly supposed by 
commentators, and doubtless acquiesced in by readers ; 
but the Sacred Eecord is not responsible for it ; and 
a little reflection will show that it is untenable. ~No 
doubt the Israelites had some sheep and oxen, and 
other beasts of burden always with them, for this is 
both required and proved by the charge given to 
Moses at Sinai, (which, by the way, is the only scrip- 
tural proof of his allegation which the Bishop supplies,) 
viz : — " neither let the flocks nor herds, (or, as it may 



Sheep and Cattle in the Desert. 79 

be read, the sheep and oxen), feed before that Mount." 
But this is a very different thing from supposing that 
all their flocks and herds, amounting as Bishop 
Colenso calculates, to two millions at the least, were 
there. Whether they could have been fed there or not, 
it is next to certain that there would not have been 
room for such a number of sheep and oxen in the 
wilderness of Sinai. So far as we know anything of 
it, that wilderness was a small plain at the foot of 
Sinai, enclosed by lofty precipices and mountains, and 
not more than two square miles in extent.* When we 
consider, then, the room necessary for the encampment 
of two millions of people, and for the tabernacle and 
other purposes, we may be quite sure that there 
would be no room there for two millions of sheep and 
oxen also. 

The major portions of the flocks and herds, then, 
must have been somewhere else ; and though we do 
not know where they were, we may be quite sure 
that they would be sent by Moses to those places, 
far or near, where they were most likely to find pas- 
ture, ISTo man knew better than he where such places 
would be found at all seasons of the year ; and he had 
all the wilderness of Paran, as well as all the region 
of Horeb, in his choice — a space of probably not 
less than 15,000 square miles, or about equal to the 
half of Scotland and its isles. Surely that was range 
enough for two millions of sheep and oxen, or even 
for several times that number. 

* Robinson's Bib. Res., vol. i. Sect. 3. 



80 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

But, says Bishop Colenso, If the flocks and herds had 
been so dispersed, " they would surely have required to 
be guarded by large bodies of armed men, from the 
attacks of Amalekites, and Midianites, and others." 
Well, out of 600,000 men able to go forth to war, 
the Israelites could have spared a pretty sufhcient 
guard, if necessary ; but where is the proof that this 
was necessary % Moses had fed the flocks of Jethro 
throughout all this region for forty years, and we do 
not read of him having always a guard of armed men 
with him. 

But it may be said that, Whether armed men 
were necessary or not, such a dispersion of the cattle 
of the Israelites, must have required, for the pur- 
pose of feeding them, many of the Israelites them- 
selves to be dispersed also, and how is this con- 
sistent with the narrative? We answer that the 
narrative does not forbid this ; but if it did, even 
this was not necessary — for the Israelites had others 
to perform this service for them. For, remember 
what the sacred narrative says concerning both the 
Israelites and their cattle when they left Egypt : 
11 And the children of Israel journeyed from Eameses 
to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot that 
were men, besides children. And a mixed multitude 
went up also with them ; and flocks and herds, even 
very much cattle." * 

Now, who composed this "mixed multitude" which 
accompanied the Israelites out of Egypt, and is 
* Exodus xii. 37, 38. 



Sheep and Cattle in the Desert. 81 

so closely associated with their flocks and herds ? It 
cannot, perhaps, be said with absolute certainty who 
they were ; but, bating a slight difference in the 
pointing, the original word for mixed, here, is the 
same as that repeatedly employed in Scripture for 
the " mingled people that dwelt in the desert," — that 
is, the wandering Arabs or Bedawin, as they are now 
commonly called. They dwelt in the wilderness then, 
as they do now. They were doubtless found in great 
numbers then, as now, in Egypt, and on the borders 
of Egypt — ever ready also to return to their home in 
the desert, when a sufficient motive or opportunity 
was afforded them. And may we not warrantably 
conclude then, that this " mixed multitude " that left 
Egypt along with the flocks and herds of the 
Israelites, was composed, in great part at least, of 
Arabs ? And if we do, we see at once how the great 
body of the Israelitish cattle could be guided and fed 
in the desert, without the attendance of many of the 
Israelites themselves. These Arabs, and other aliens 
(as the same word also signifies) may have been the 
herdsmen of the Israelites, and could follow their 
charge, wherever it might roam, throughout that wide 
and pathless wilderness which was their own home. 
And it may be mentioned as some corroboration of 
the supposition — that they, with the main body of the 
flocks and herds of the Israelites, on leaving Egypt, 
went at once into the wilderness of Paran, and 
remained there all the time the Israelites were at Sinai 
— that we never read of this mixed multitude again 



82 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

till the Israelites left Sinai, and pitched in the wilder- 
ness of Paran.* 

Let it be observed, that we do not say that this is 
the true explanation of the manner in which the 
flocks and herds of the Israelites were guarded and 
fed in the wilderness. We are not called on to do so. 
We mention it as a possible way ; and this is all that 
is necessary to meet Bishop Colenso's objection. 

But here comes in the second of the Bishop's pos- 
tulates which we dispute. He says : "It cannot be 
pretended that the state of the country through which 
the Israelites travelled has undergone any material 
change from that time to this;" — the conclusion 
being, of course, that as it could not support so 
numerous flocks and herds now, neither could it sup- 
port them then. And here he quotes a variety of 
passages of Scripture to support both his premisses 
and his conclusion ; for Scripture is always true, ak 
was already remarked, when it serves his purpose. 
ISTow I hold it a good maxim, when we find infidels 
quoting Scripture in support of their infidelity, always 
to suspect some " cantraip " or juggle in the case. It is 
like seething a kid in its mother's milk ; or like 
Satan quoting Scripture in support of a temptation. 
And what is the best way of acting in the case? 
Plainly, to look well at the Scripture quoted — to 

* Num. xi. 4. The word for " mixed multitude " in this 
verse, is different from that in Ex. xii. 38 ; but the most 
learned commentators, regard it as referring to the same 
body ; Ges. in verb. ; Rosenm., Dathe, Clarke, &c., in he. 



Sheep and Cattle in the Desert. 83 

examine it carefully. Let us then do so here ; and it 
is necessary to look only at one of the Bishop's Scrip- 
ture proofs ; for they are substantially repetitions of 
one another. 

The Bishop, as usual, quotes only part of the 
passage, the part that suits him ; but we shall quote 
the whole. It is found in JSTum. xx. 1-5, and reads 
thus : " Then came the children of Israel, even the 
whole congregation, into the desert of Zin, in the 
first month : and the people abode in Kadesh ; and 
Miriam died there, and was buried there. And there 
was no water for the congregation : and they gathered 
themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. 
And the people chode with Moses, and spake, saying, 
Would God that we had died when our brethren died 
before the Lord ! And why have ye brought up the 
congregation of the Lord into this wilderness, that we 
and our cattle should die there 1 ? And wherefore have ye 
made us come up out of Egypt, to bring us into this evil 
place 1 it is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or 
of pomegranates ; neither is there any water to drink." 
Now what is to be said of this proof that the wilder- 
ness was then, as it is now, incapable of supporting so 
many flocks and herds as the Israelites must have 
possessed for forty years, or even one year 1 

We answer (1st), That the passage relates to the 
" first month " of— what year %— the fortieth and last 
year of the Israelites' abode in the wilderness ; and 
if, therefore, it prove anything, it must prove that, for 
thirty-nine years, the flocks and herds had not died 



84 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

for want of food. (This note of time was not very 
suitable to the Bishop's purpose, and was left out.) 
— Again (2d), The passage relates only to a particular 
and small corner of the whole wilderness of Arabia — 
that called the " desert of Zin." This is the district 
now called Wady El-Arabah, lying between the wil- 
derness of Paran and the land of Edom, the most barren 
and desolate part of the whole region. We may believe 
the worst that can be said of it. But the very fact 
that the Israelites complained so loudly and bitterly, 
only here, sufficiently proves that they had no such 
reason for complaint during all the thirty-eight years 
since they had left Sinai and sojourned in the wil- 
derness of Paran. (This notice of the place was as 
little suitable to the Bishop's purpose as that of the 
time, and it too was left out.) — But observe, lastly, 
that these complaints of the Israelites, and those 
which followed so long as they remained in this dis- 
trict, were so provoking to Jehovah, and therefore, we 
may presume, in some points of view, so certainly un- 
reasonable and sinful, that on account of them He sent 
the plague of fiery serpents on them, as we learn from 
the next chapter; which again sufficiently shows that 
this was a peculiar and exceptional case, proving noth- 
ing either as to the state of the whole wilderness, or 
as to the whole period which the Israelites had now 
passed in it. 

And here, too, we may see the reason why Moses 
and Jeremiah speak of the wilderness in the manner 
they have done, in the other passages quoted by 



Sheep and Cattle in the Desert. 85 

Bishop Colenso. The former, in Deut. viii. 13, calls it 
" a great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery 
serpents and scorpions, and drought, where there was 
no water." And the latter speaks of it (Jer. ii. 6), as 
" a land of deserts and of pits, a land of drought and 
of the shadow of death ; a land that no man passed 
through, and where no man dwelt." There might be 
other portions of the wilderness to which these 
description belonged as well as the desert of Zin ; but 
this being the one spot more particularly spoken of 
in the record, to which they applied, — and these 
passages obviously referring to that quoted from the 
twentieth chapter of Numbers, — Bishop Colenso had 
no right to say of them, as he does, that they describe 
generally the whole wilderness in which the Israelites 
sojourned. 

In conclusion, on this subject, some facts may be 
mentioned, which go to show that the vast tract of 
table land that forms the central and larger portion 
of the wilderness of Arabia, and the greater part of 
which was known by the name of Paran, was by no 
means so sterile formerly as it is now. And I would 
remind you, first, that water is the source of all 
fertility, and that there are many places in these 
Arabian deserts in which water is to be found by 
digging a little beneath the surface. Hence the 
many references to this in the history of the patri- 
archs, and that, too, as to parts of this very wilder- 
ness. So that possibly labour and skill may be all 
that is necessary to render it habitable and produc- 



86 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

tive. — Again, great changes have, since the time 
of Moses (if, at least, we are to believe his re- 
cords) come over all the surrounding countries ; 
and why not over the wilderness also 1 Idumea, to 
the east, was then inhabited by a numerous and 
powerful nation ; but now it is utterly desolate and 
deserted. The southern districts of Canaan and 
Philistia, which lay to the north of it, were then 
also thickly peopled and fertile ; but what are they 
now ? — little better than a wilderness of sand. And 
even the land of Goshen, which bordered it on the 
west, though still the best of the land of Egypt, is 
far from being in our day what it seems to have been 
when the tribes of Jacob dwelt in it. — Above all — 
(and here we have the authority of Bishop Colenso 
himself; whether a better authority than that of Moses 
I leave you to judge) — the wilderness of Paran itself 
was then the dwelling-place of numerous and power- 
ful nations. For he says, that if the cattle of the 
Israelites had been so dispersed as we have supposed, 
they would have required to be guarded, by large 
bodies of armed men, from the attacks of the Amale- 
Jcites, and Midianites, and others. Now we know 
that the Amalekites, " the first of nations," were a 
numerous and strong people inhabiting that wilder- 
ness, having flocks and herds of " sheep and oxen and 
asses and camels." The Midianites also, who dwelt 
there and elsewhere, were a numerous and wealthy 
people, having cities, and goodly castles, and hundreds 
of thousands of cattle. The Kenites, too, inhabited 



The Assembly of the Congregation. 87 

some parts of the same wilderness, " having their nest 
in the rock ;" and they too had abundance of flocks 
and herds. In short, the whole region seems in former 
times to have been less or more thickly peopled by 
pastoral tribes and nations. But what is it now 1 
Barely sufficient, according to Canon Stanley, to afford 
sustenance for the herds of 6,000 Bedawin, who con- 
stitute the present population of the peninsula — that 
is, of the whole Arabian desert.* 

Let us now proceed to consider another of Bishop 
Colenso's difficulties in the Pentateuch, coming under 
this head, namely — difficulties in regard to which he 
rejects or ignores obvious considerations, which go 
far to lessen or remove them. Let us consider that 
which relates to the size of the court of the Taber- 
nacle, compared with the number of the congregation. 

The Bishop first quotes sundry passages of Scrip- 
ture, to show that Jehovah commanded Moses to 
gather the congregation together unto the door of the 
Tabernacle ; and that they were so assembled. He 

* The author has long heen of opinion that it is of the 
northern part of this wilderness that it is said, Gen. xxvi. 12, 
" Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same 
year an hundred fold." He hesitated to mention this, in 
delivering his lecture, because he had. never met with any 
author who took the same view, and there was no opportunity 
of proving it. Since then, he has found the same opinion 
strongly stated and supported in Dr. Stewart's hook, entitled, 
"The Tent and the Khan," pp. 207-212. Dr. Stewart 
travelled over the whole wilderness, from Sinai to Beer- 
sheba. 



88 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

next argues that the expressions " the congregation," 
" the whole assembly," and such like, must mean the 
whole people, or at least the 600,000 adult men; and 
then, by a variety of calculations, endeavours to show 
the impossibility of their being so gathered, seeing the 
court of the Tabernacle, when thronged, could only 
have held 5000 people. His conclusion is, that "it 
is inconceivable how, in these circumstances, ' all the 
assembly,' the ' whole congregation/ could have been 
summoned to attend ' at the door of the Tabernacle,' 
by the express command of Almighty God." 

What is to be said of this startling difficulty ? We 
answer, Let us take a similar case. Our word com- 
mons has, we know, a primary and natural significa- 
tion : it means the common people, the whole nation, 
exclusive of the aristocracy. But it has also a con- 
ventional signification, meaning the representatives of 
the people — the members of the Commons' House of 
Parliament. Now suppose I should select from some 
historian a number of passages, in which the word is 
used in the first sense, and then fix attention particu- 
larly on one passage, in which all the Commons, or the 
whole Assembly of the Commons, were said to have 
been convened "in their own house," or "their own 
chamber," you can easily see what a difficulty — what an 
.objection to the veracity of the historian — I could 
thus get up. I could get the dimensions of the 
chamber of the Commons, and show that it could not 
possibly contain more than, say, a thousand persons. 
I could then number the people, and show that they 



The Assembly of the Congregation. 89 

must have amounted to five, or six, or seven millions 
of able-bodied men; and I could conclude with a 
self-satisfied flourish, ' It is inconceivable how all the 
commons — the whole assembly of the commons — 
could have been convened in any such chamber, or 
any chamber, or house, whatever, that ever was in 
erected.' 

Now this, I apprehend, is precisely what Bishop 
Colenso has done, in this chapter of his book. He 
has ignored or forgotten the consideration that a re- 
presentative body may bear the same name with those 
whom it represents, and be spoken of as, to all ordinary 
intents and purposes, the same. Nay, he has worse 
than forgotten it ; he has sought, ignorantly, I hope, 
but cunningly, I fear, to exclude this consideration, by 
distinguishing the whole congregation from the elders, 
or heads of the people, so as to prevent the idea from 
rising in the reader's mind that this expression, " the 
congregation," or "the whole congregation," could ever 
mean a representative assembly. Now it could easily 
enough be shown, from various passages of the Pen- 
tateuch and the book of Joshua, that besides the 
elders of Israel, or the princes, as they are also called, 
who were the heads and representatives of the chief 
families, there was another class called the " heads of 
houses," who represented smaller divisions of the 
people, and who, along with the elders, constituted 
the representatives or delegates of the nation. Thus 
in the 24th chapter of Joshua it is said, (v. 1, 2), That 
Joshua "gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, 



90 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

and called for the elders of Israel, and for their heads, 
and for their judges, and for their officers, and they 
presented themselves before God. And Joshua said 
unto all the people," &c. The meaning is evidently 
that, in addressing these representatives of the people, 
Joshua virtually addressed all the people. That this 
has been the view taken by the most learned writers 
on Hebrew antiquities, I might quote passages to 
show, from such books as " Michaelis on the Laws of 
Moses," " J aim's Hebrew Commonwealth," &c. But 
I shall content myself with one or two statements 
from "Kitto's Cyclopaedia," by an Oxford scholar, still 
living, I presume. He says, " The words which stand 
at the head of our article, to express the national con- 
gregation (i. e., the Hebrew words for congregation, 
assembly, &c), sometimes imply, (1), A meeting of the 
whole mass of the people ; sometimes, (2), A congress 
of deputies." And then explaining the composition 
of this congress of deputies, he adds, " In Numbers 
i. 16 we read of persons called, not the renowned of 
the congregation, as it is in our version, but those 
wont to he called to the congregation. In the 16th 
chapter they are more explicitly styled chiefs of the 
congregation zuho are called to the convention. While 
in Exodus xxxviii. 25 occurs the phrase, those de- 
puted to the assembly, which exactly describes dele- 
gated persons." And then the same author goes on 
to describe the various classes of persons composing 
this representative assembly, when they met, how 
they were summoned, and so on. 



The Assembly of the Congregation. 91 

It is unnecessary, however, to enter farther into 
these details. What Bishop Colenso ignores or rejects 
on this question, is the common, the universally 
understood principle of representation, by which the 
expression, "the congregation," or "the whole assembly 
of the congregation," might come to signify only a 
few hundreds of delegates or representatives of the 
Israelitish people. We cannot, of course, tell how 
many they were. But suppose that every ruler of a 
thousand had a seat, as we would say, in this House 
of Commons, then, taking in also the elders and other 
ex officio members, the whole would not probably 
amount to more than between 600 and 700, a very 
suitable number evidently both for being assembled 
at the door of the Tabernacle of the congregation, and 
for being addressed, at one time, by Moses or by 
Joshua. 

But whatever might be their precise numbers, such 
is the answer I would give to this difficulty. And I 
would remind you that this principle of personal re- 
presentation,, and also another principle, that of sym- 
bolical representation, were well understood among the 
Israelites. The fact is, their whole religion may be 
said to have been founded on these two principles; 
and they were brought before them and acted on 
almost every day. Permit me to remind you of an 
instance of this, which could easily be set in such a 
light as to present as formidable a difficulty — as great 
an impossibility — as any to be found in Bishop Col- 
enso' s book. — When the covenant between Jehovah 



92 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

and Israel was ratified at the foot of Sinai, Moses, we are 
told, took half the blood of the sacrifice which had 
been offered and sprinkled it on the altar. Then, 
having read the book of the covenant to the people, 
and received their assent to it, he took the remaining 
half of the blood and sprinkled it on the people, say- 
ing, " Behold the blood of the covenant, which the 
Lord hath made with you concerning all these words." 
In the epistle to the Hebrews we are expressly told 
that Moses " sprinkled all the people " But how is 
this credible 1 " All the people " are commonly 
reckoned at two and a-half millions. Suppose them 
to be drawn up in ranks, each rank containing 2,500 
persons ; and allowing two feet, as the Bishop does, 
to each person, every rank would be nearly a mile in 
length, and there would be 1000 ranks in all. Now, 
to sprinkle all the people with the blood of the cove- 
nant, Moses would require to go along the whole 
length of every rank, and sprinkle each person as he 
passed — that is, he would require to walk a thousand 
miles ; and how was it possible that he should do so in 
a single day? Why, at the very least, he would re- 
quire a month or six weeks ; and how, then, can this 
story about the sprinkling of the blood of the cove- 
nant be believed ? Nay, let us suppose that all the 
people means only the 600,000 adult men: still there 
would be 240 ranks, and Moses would require to 
walk 240 miles before he could sprinkle them, which 
would take him at least a week or ten days. Now, 
here is a problem or puzzle, if you like so to call it, 



The Israelites Armed. 93 

as good and well-founded, I think, as any of the 
Bishop of Ratal's. And what is the solution ? The 
reader will find it, on a careful and intelligent perusal 
of the narrative, by observing that Moses performed 
the work of sprinkling the people on the principle of 
symbolical representation. The altar being the re- 
presentative of Jehovah, he erected twelve pillars to 
represent the twelve tribes of Israel, and the sprink- 
ling of these, which could evidently be performed in 
a few minutes, was considered as the sprinkling of the 
people. And this was one of the most important and 
solemn of all the transactions of the Israelitish 
history. 

I shall now call attention shortly to the only diffi- 
culty which I propose to bring under the third head 
which I have specified — real difficulties, from which 
Bishop Colenso draws unwarrantable conclusions. It 
is that which he grounds on the Israelites being said 
to be " harnessed," or armed, when they left Egypt. 
The Bishop's objection is sufficiently brought out in 
the following paragraphs of his book: — 

" The children of Israel went up harnessed out of the land of 
Egypt. Exod. xiii. 18. 

"The word D^Ef"!, which is here rendered 'harnessed,' 

appears to mean ' armed ' or 'in battle array,' in all the other 
passages where it occurs. Thus, Josh. i. 14, ' But ye shall 
pass before your brethren armed, all the mighty men of valour, 
and help them.' So, Josh. iv. 12, 'And the children of 
Reuben, and the children of Gad, and half the tribe of Ma- 
nasseh, passed over armed before the children of Israel, as 



9-t The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

Moses spake unto them.' And, Jud. vii. 11, 'Then went he 
down, with Phurah, his servant, unto the outside of the armed 
men that were in the host.' It is possible also that the He- 
brew word D^n which occurs in Num. xxxii. 17, and is 
rendered ' armed ' in the English version, but which Gesen- 
ius derives from ^n, ' to make haste,' and renders ' hasten- 
ing ' or ' in haste,' may be a corruption from D^'on by the 

accidental omission of a letter. 

"It is, however, inconceivable that these down-trodden, 
oppressed people should have been allowed by Pharaoh to 
possess arms, so as to turn out at a moment's notice 600,000 
armed men. If such a mighty host, — Dearly nine times as 
great as the whole of Wellington's army at Waterloo, (69,686 
men, Alison's History of Europe, xix. p. 401), — had had arms 
in their hands, would they not have risen long ago for their 
liberty, or, at all events, would there have been no danger of 
their rising? Besides, the warriors formed a distinct caste 
in Egypt, as Herodotus tells us, ii. 165, 'being in number, 
when they are most numerous, 160,000, none of whom learn 
any mechanical art, but apply themselves wholly to military 
affairs.' Are we to suppose, tben, that the Israelites acquired 
their arms by ' borrowing ' on the night of the Exodus ? 
Nothing whatever is said of this, and the idea itself is an 
extravagant one. But, if even in this or any other way they 
had come to be possessed of arms, is it conceivable that 
600,000 armed men, in the prime of life, would have cried 
out in panic terror, ' sore afraid,' Exod. xiv. 10, when they 
saw that they were being pursued ?" 

The Bishop goes on throughout the chapter turning 
the objection in all ways, so as to sustain his conclu- 
sion, which is of course that this statement in Exodus 
xiii. 18 is one reason for rejecting the whole Penta- 
teuch. 



The Israelites Armed. 95 

Now, on this point I maintain, first, that no man 
can now prove that the Israelites, when they went 
out of Egypt, were not more, or less, possessed 
of arms. Bishop Colenso says, " that it is inconceiv- 
able that these down-trodden and oppressed people 
should have been allowed by Pharaoh to possess arms, 
so as to turn out at a moment's notice 600,000 armed 
men." No doubt of it ! Neither the historian nor 
any other author, I presume, ever said that they were 
" allowed by Pharaoh to possess arms " to this or to 
any other amount. Nevertheless they might possibly 
possess a considerable quantity of arms, without 
either the allowance or the knowledge of Pharaoh. 
We know how common it is for oppressed nations, 
when looking forward to freedom, to obtain posses- 
sion of arms without their oppressor's knowledge ; 
and though there was less need of such a provision 
in this case, seeing Israel's emancipation was to be 
effected by divine power and not by human prowess, 
no one can now demonstrate that that provision was 
not made. 

But again, secondly, granting that the Israelites 
were not "armed" in the proper sense of the ex- 
pression, it cannot be shown that the historian meant 
to say they were. The word translated " harnessed " 
in the verse in question, is a word of very doubtful 
signification. Its etymology is not known, and it is 
only from the meaning of supposed cognate words 
in Arabic that Gesenius concludes that it signifies 
" eager, active, brave, ready prepared for fighting." 



96 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

He gives other interpretations, but this, he says, 
best suits the context and the structure of the 
language. Now, as to the structure of the language 
I shall say nothing ; but as to suiting the context, 
in this passage at least, every one can judge for 
himself. And when he does so, he will find that as 
"great men are not always wise," learned men are 
not always prudent or pertinent in their reasons ; for 
it would be difficult to imagine any meaning less suit- 
able to the context than this. The context is, " And 
it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, 
that God led them not through the way of the Phil- 
istines, although that was near ; for God said, Lest 
peradventure the people repent when they see war, 
and they return to Egypt : but God led the people 
about, through the way of the wilderness of the Eed 
Sea." — Then follows the statement in question, " And 
the children of Israel went up harnessed out of the 
land of Egypt." Now, put in the explanation which 
Gesenius says "suits the context," in place of the 
word "harnessed," and you make the historian flatly 
contradict, not himself only, but God also. God is 
almost expressly made to say that the people were not 
prepared for war; yet the historian adds (if this be 
the meaning of the word), that " they went up eager, 
active, brave, ready prepared for fighting." It may 
be added that our translators have, in all the instances 
in which the word occurs, put another meaning in 
the margin, and not always the same meaning, — thus 
showing how doubtful they were of its import. And 



The Israelites Armed. 97 

similar marks of its obscurity are found in other ver- 
sions. The Septuagint renders it " in the fifth gen- 
eration." Another version interprets it "marshalled 
in five divisions," and another " by fifties," meaning, 
probably, not by fifties in a rank, but by fifties under 
different leaders — " the captain of fifty and his fifty," 
as is said elsewhere. 

I maintain, lastly, on this subject, that no candid 
scholar, or reader anxious to find out the truth, 
would, in these circumstances, build a serious argu- 
ment on this word. No man who has not a sinister 
end in view, or a foregone conclusion to support, would 
draw from it any conclusion whatever, save that the 
meaning of the word is not known. And what then 
are we to think of Bishop Colenso, who makes this 
word one of the pillars of the tremendous conclusion, 
that a large portion of that volume on which the 
faith, and hope, and religion of all Christendom are 
based, is not to be believed 1 

In regard to the difficulty of the Israelites getting 
arms in the wilderness, the bishop says, " We must 
suppose that the whole body of 600,000 warriors were 
armed, when they were numbered (Num. i. 3) under 
Sinai. They possessed arms, surely, at that time, ac- 
cording to the story. How did they get them, unless 
they took them out of Egypt?" We answer that 
there is no necessity of supposing anything of the 
kind. The passage (Num. i. 3) says not one word 
about arms. But if we should suppose the Israelites 
were all or most of them armed then, and suppose, 
G 



98 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

also, that they did not bring their armour out of 
Egypt, what was to hinder them from making it in 
the wilderness ? Bishop Colenso has not formally 
challenged their ability to make the tabernacle and 
its furniture ; and if they could make them, what 
was to hinder them from making swords, spears, 
shields, and other pieces of the rude and simple kinds 
of armour then in use ? It is amazing how much 
this man of minute and searching arithmetic trusts 
occasionally to the force of broad, bold, unwarranted 
assertions. He evidently has, as the late Dr. Chalmers 
would have said, great confidence in the gullibility of 
the public. 

I make one other remark on the doubtful word, 
on which this objection is based. I do not make it 
as an answer to Bishop Colenso, but merely as 
indicating a possible way out of the real difficulty 
which this word creates. I warn you also that the 
observation is entirely conjectural, and has no higher 
claim to your regard than that of a mere possibility. 
It is that, possibly, the word rendered " harnessed " 
in this verse may, in course of transcription, have 
undergone some change. If two of its letters had in 
any way changed places (which sometimes happened 
in writing Hebrew as it does in printing English) 
then the original word would have been one that sig- 
nified " rejoicing."* So that the meaning of the state- 
ment would have been, " And the children of Israel 
went up out of the land of Egypt rejoicing." And 
* DT1B&* for D^Dn 



Conclusion. 99 

that, plainly, is a meaning which well suits the con- 
text, and all the circumstances, besides being expressly 
attested by the Psalmist, (Ps. cv. 43 :) "And he brought 
forth his people with joy, and his chosen with glad- 
ness," or singing. 

In conclusion, the text assures us that " the word of 
the Lord is tried." The meaning is, that it is pure, 
" refined as silver is refined, and tried as gold is tried." 
It is all precious metal, without dross, without alloy. 
11 For the words of the Lord are pure words, as silver 
tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times." 
And what is our duty, then, in reference to it? 
Plainly to value it, to trust in it, and lay it up in our 
hearts. It is better than gold, yea, than much fine 
gold, and happy is he in whom it dwells richly. But 
let us also see that we understand it rightly. Though 
pure as it comes from God, it may become mixed with 
error or falsehood as it dwells in our minds. There 
can be no doubt that there is in many minds a vast 
mass of false interpretation and unfounded inference 
encrusting, so to speak, the word of God. Let us get 
quit of this, for it is both deceitful and dangerous 
matter. And for this purpose let us study the word 
more carefully, and ask and depend upon the guidance 
of the great Teacher, the Holy Spirit, to lead us to the 
true meaning, and all the meaning of Scripture ; for 
it is that only which will enable us to resist tempta- 
tion, and " stand perfect and complete in all the will 
of God." 



LECTUEE IV.* 

Num. xii. 7, 8. — " My servant Moses is faithful in all my 
house : wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak evil of 
my servant Moses ?" 

Heb. iii. 5, 6. — "And Moses verily was faithful in all his 
house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which 
were to be spoken after ; but Christ as a son over his own 
house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence 
and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end." 

In the preceding lectures we have considered the 
most formidable of Bishop Colenso's objections to the 
historical credibility of the Pentateuch, which come 
under the three heads specified. There may be others 
capable of being brought under the same heads, but 
they are neither so important nor so imposing as those 
we have noticed ; and as we never proposed to enter 
into all his quibbles, we pass them over for the pre- 
sent, t But there are two very formidable-looking 
difficulties yet to be considered, which cannot well be 
placed in any of our categories. In one aspect they 
may be said to belong to all, but in another, to none 
of the three ; and I propose therefore to devote the 
present lecture entirely to them. They are the first 

* Delivered Feb. 8, 1863. J See Appendix, A, B, C. 



The Genealogies of Scripture. 101 

and the last in Bishop Colenso's volume ; and the 
position which he has assigned to them, as well as 
the language he employs, seems to indicate that he 
esteems them among the most important of all. Not 
only so, but, if we may judge by the frequency with 
which both, and especially the first, have, since the 
publication of his volume, been referred to by others, 
they are among those which are most likely to make 
a lasting impression on the public mind. 

The first is that in regard to the family of Judah, 
which is found in the catalogue of the names of those 
who went down to Egypt with Jacob, contained in 
Gen. xlvi. I beg to introduce it with a few observa- 
tions on the genealogical tables and lists of names, 
contained in Scripture generally. And I remark first, 

That the inspired men did not frame these genealo- 
gies, and are therefore not responsible for the difficulties 
or apparent discrepancies to be found in them. No 
one, I presume, imagines that these lists of names 
were communicated to them by divine revelation. The 
inspired men found them framed to their hand, and 
brought down by tradition or by the public and 
private registers of the Jewish tribes and families. 
They were led by the Spirit of inspiration to copy so 
much of these records as served the purposes which 
they had in view ; and all that they were responsible 
for was, to give an accurate copy so far as they went. 
This is plainly all they had to do in the matter. 

I remark secondly, That in their original state the 
Jewish genealogies must have been unchallengeably 



102 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

correct. For, as legal documents, and as involving the 
highest interests and honour of the tribes and families 
to which they belonged, they must have been con- 
structed and preserved with the utmost care, and, when 
published, must have been open to the challenge and 
correction of every individual who had an interest or 
who felt an interest in the matter. This also is un- 
questionable ; and it ought to give us confidence in 
these genealogies, provided we have no reason to think 
that they have been tampered with since. 

The third remark I make is, that at the same time 
no portions of Scripture were so liable, in the nature of 
things, to become dark and unintelligible to us and to 
all readers of other times. Why 1 For very obvious 
reasons. We know not the principles on which these 
genealogical tables were constructed. We cannot now 
trace the operation of the very peculiar laws and customs 
of Jewish society, as embodied in these records ; and 
even the different names given in different genealogies 
to the same individual, as well as the same names to 
different individuals, are apt to lead us astray. Thus 
with the most perfect accuracy in the documents 
themselves, there may be to our minds the greatest 
obscurity in them, or an appearance of the most inex- 
tricable confusion. 

And what, then, is the practical lesson which these 
remarks convey 1 ? Plainly that we may, most ration- 
ally, confide in the general truth of the genealogies of 
Scripture, even when we cannot harmonize them, or 
solve the difficulties which may be found in them. 



The Family of Judah. 103 

Take the genealogies of Christ, for instance, contained 
in the first chapter of Matthew's and in the third 
chapter of Luke's gospels. To harmonize these has 
always been a hard or impossible task to the Biblical 
scholar. I know not whether any unexceptionable 
way of doing so has ever been discovered. But ought 
this to stumble or distress the mind of any sincere 
believer in the inspiration of the Word of God % Not 
for a moment. These genealogies were doubtless 
copied from public and authentic documents, existing 
in the archives of the Jewish nation, or of the royal 
family. They were published when, had they been 
challengeable, they could have been and would have- 
been challenged by thousands. This is enough to 
prove their original accuracy; and it only confirms 
that proof to add that, so far as known, they never 
were challenged until the principles on which they 
were constructed, and the peculiarities of law and cus- 
tom which they embodied, had been lost sight of by 
those who challenged them, or become altogether 
unknown. 

The truth and importance of these remarks will be 
illustrated in some measure by the difficulty, to the 
consideration of which we now proceed, — that in 
regard to "the family of Judah." That difficulty is 
shortly this : — That in the list of the names of those 
who went down with Jacob to Egypt (Gen. xlvi. 8-27), 
the names (Hezron and Hamul) of two of the grand- 
children of Judah, who could not then have been 
born, are found. Yet you cannot leave out these 



104 The Pentateuch Vindicated, 

names, or consider them as interpolated afterwards, 
for you cannot, without them, make up the list of 
sixty-six persons, which are said, both there and else- 
where, to have gone down to Egypt with Jacob. 

Such is the difficulty — the apparent discrepancy to 
be found in this part of the Pentateuch ; and what 
are we to say in reference to it 1 I answer, that the 
difficulty may be solved, I think, in a single sentence ; 
but it will take a good deal of explanation to show 
that solution to be sound and scriptural : and I beg 
to be allowed, therefore, to enter somewhat minutely 
into the subject. It is not necessary to quote from 
Bishop Colenso's volume, for I have little or nothing 
to say against his way of stating the difficulty. 
Generally speaking, his premisses are sound, his cal- 
culations unquestionable, and his answers to Kurtz, 
Hengstenberg, and others, unanswerable. I do not 
mean, of course, that I assent to his conclusions ; but 
merely to say that his data and calculations are correct, 
and that his answers to former solutions, appear to be 
so. The solution which I propose has not, so far as I 
know, been before given ; and being anxious to give 
it fully, I prefer to state the whole story with which 
the difficulty is connected, as I understand it. That 
story, as recorded in the thirty-eighth chapter of 
Genesis, is not a very pleasant or morally pretty 
one ; but for the sake of truth we must be content 
to look at it for a little. 

The story is this : When Judah, the fourth son of 
Jacob, was about twenty years of age, he married the 



The Family of Judah. 105 

daughter of Shuah, a Canaanite, and by her had 
(in three successive years, we may suppose,) three sons 
named Er, Onan, and Shelah. When Er, the first- 
born, became marriageable (which we cannot suppose 
would be in less than sixteen years after his father's 
marriage, and when Judah, therefore, would be about 
thirty-six years of age), he was married to Tamar : 
but "he was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and 
the Lord slew him." In other words, he died sud- 
denly, without having a child. According to the 
levirate law of marriage, which then prevailed, and 
of which I shall afterwards have occasion to speak, 
Tamar, his widow, was, probably after some interval, 
given to his brother Onan to wife ; but he also died 
suddenly, without issue. Tamar was then directed 
by Judah to remain in widowhood in her father's 
house till Shelah, his third son, was grown ; which 
she did : but afterwards, finding or suspecting that 
the requirements of the levirate law were not com- 
plied with, she, by a stratagem, entrapped Judah him- 
self, and by him had the twin sons Pharez and Zarah. 
We might be tempted here to speak of the disgusting im- 
purity and villainy of these transactions ; but we forbear. 
Our present business is not with the moral character, 
but with the facts and times of these occurrences ; 
and it is very obvious, that when these two sons of 
Judah, by Tamar, were born, their father could not 
be less than thirty-nine years of age. And therefore, 
at the time of the going down to Egypt, when Judah 
was certainly not more than forty-two, these children 
could not be more than about three years old. 



106 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

Xow one of tliem, Pharez, was the father of Hezron and 
Hamul, whose names appear in the list of those who 
came out of Jacob's loins, and who came with him to 
Egypt. But how could that be 1 These children of 
Pharez, and grandchildren of Judah, could not be 
born till twelve or thirteen years at least after the 
migration to Egypt; and how, then, could their 
names be reckoned among the sixty-six who went 
down to Egypt with Jacob ? My answer is, that the 
names of Hezron and Hamul are not reckoned 
among the sixty-six : they are only mentioned paren- 
thetically, for a reason that can be easily explained ; 
and that the names that are reckoned to make up the 
sixty-six are those of Er and Onan, the dead sons of 
Judah. Eor though they themselves were dead, their 
names were still alive ; i. e., they had still the power 
and privilege of founding families in Israel, and were 
still "written," therefore, "among the living" in 
Jacob. This is the answer which I propose to sup- 
port, and I shall do so as briefly as seems consistent 
with perspicuity. 

1. Permit me to remind you how great an honour 
it was always esteemed to have a living name in 
Israel — a name, that is, enrolled in the genealogies of 
the tribes and families, and preserved to all genera- 
tions. For, besides that the continuance of the 
inheritance in a man's family depended on this, it 
secured him also a kind of immortality on earth. 
His name was remembered as one of the builders of 
the house of Israel Hence the blessing of having 



The Family of Judah. 107 

many sons ; hence the curse of being " written child- 
less;" and hence also the figurative language about 
being "blotted out," or "not blotted out," from the 
book of the living. And this honour, it should be 
remarked, would be especially cared for in the earlier 
days of the Israelitish people ; for then the great, the 
chief families were being founded, almost all of which 
bore the names of the grandchildren of Jacob, who 
went down with him to Egypt, as may be seen in the 
26th chapter of the book of Numbers. 

2. Let me remind you, next, of the various ways 
by which an Israelite might secure this honour of 
having a living name, even after his own death. 
The first and most direct way was, of course, by 
having one or more sons to represent him, to inherit 
his property, and to build up his house and name. 

Another way was, if the deceased had daughters 
only, by these daughters, as heiresses, being married to 
husbands of their own kindred, and their husbands 
taking the name, and being written as the sons, of 
their deceased father-in-law. Of this we have an 
appropriate illustration in the case of the daughters of 
Zelophehad, spoken of in the 27th and 36th chapters 
of Numbers. 

But there was a third way in which a man's 
name might be preserved and numbered among the 
living, after his death : namely, by a younger brother 
or kinsman marrying his widow, and raising up seed 
to him. This was what is called the levirate marriage 
law, of which we have many illustrations in Scripture. 



108 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

We have a memorial of it, for instance, in the ques- 
tion which the Sadducees put to Christ, touching the 
resurrection, when they proposed the hypothetical 
case of seven brothers who had married one woman, 
and died childless. We have an illustration of it 
also, I need hardly remind you, in the beautiful story 
of the book of Euth ; and in it we are expressly told 
that the design in view in the marriage of Ruth to 
the kinsman of her first husband was, " to raise up 
the name of the dead upon his inheritance, that the 
name of the dead be not cut off from among his 
brethren." * The law of Moses on the subject, also, 
was express and pointed : " If brethren dwell together, 
and one of them die, and have no child, the wife of 
the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger : 
her husband's brother shall go in unto her, and take 
her to him to wife, and perform the duty of an hus- 
band's brother unto her. And it shall be, that the 
first-born which she beareth shall succeed in the name 
of the brother which is dead, that his name be not 
put out of Israel :" literally, u that his name be not 
blotted out from Israel." f 

But the story which we have repeated from the 
38th chapter of Genesis is the most impressive of all 
the illustrations of the operation of this law, and of 
its design. It shows us, besides, that the law was 
not originated by Moses, but existed long before his 
day; it existed among the Canaanites, as well as 
the Israelites, and was probably one of those tyrant- 
* Ruth iv. 10. f Deut. xxv. 5, 6. 



The Family of Judah. 109 

customs (arising, as Micliaelis thinks, out of the prac- 
tice of polygamy) which no lawgiver can at once put 
down, but which he can only regulate and modify. 
The law is said to prevail still among the Mongols of 
Tartary and China, among whom also polygamy is 
rampant. 

3. But without enlarging, I have now only to remind 
you further how, by virtue of this law, Er and Onan, 
the dead sons of Judah, had a " living name " in 
Israel, or had a right to be named among the foun- 
ders of the first and chief families of the nation, to 
record the names of whom was the very object of the 
list in the 46th chapter of Genesis. — Er and Onan had a 
very peculiar kind of right to this ; for Pharez and 
Zarah, the sons of Judah by Tamar, stood in a 
very peculiar relation to them. Let us confine 
our attention to Pharez. By the law of nature he 
was the son of Judah ; but by the levirate law he 
may be said to have been the grandson of Judah, 
being the son of his daughter-in-law. And so in re- 
gard to the two dead brothers — Pharez, by the law 
of nature, was their younger brother, but by the levi- 
rate law he was their son, being the son of their 
wife. This, however, gave the dead brothers only a 
double claim to have their names raised up, or pre- 
served alive, through him. And accordingly it was 
so ; for Pharez, instead of being the founder of one 
family in Israel, became the founder of three distinct 
families : as we read in the 26th chapter of Numbers. 
His two eldest sons, Hezron and Hamul, founded the 



110 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

families of the Hezronites and Hamulites; and then 
the other sons of Pharez bore his own name, and con- 
stituted the family of the Pharzites. Thus, I contend, 
the two dead sons of Judah were afterwards, through 
Hezron and Hainul, founders of families in Israel, 
and therefore, though dead, their names were not 
blotted out, but were to be counted among the sixty- 
six that went down with Jacob to Egypt. 

And hence, too, the reason why Hezron and Hamul, 
though not then born, were parenthetically men- 
tioned, though not counted, in this list of sixty-six 
names. It was through them that the dead sons of 
Judah afterwards secured their legal and acknow- 
ledged right. And here I may remark, by the way, 
that the construction of the verse that contains their 
names agrees with tins supposition — that they were 
not to be counted, but were only mentioned as in a 
parenthesis : a fact which Bishop Colenso has either 
not noticed or has designedly suppressed ; for in 
quoting the verse he changes its construction. The 
verse reads thus in our translation, which is perfectly 
literal : " And the sons of Judah, Er, and Onan, and 
Shelah, and Pharez, and Zarah : but Er and Onan died 
in the land of Canaan. And the sons of Pharez were 
Hezron and Hamul/' The Bishop leaves out the sub- 
stantive Terb were in this last clause, and so makes it 
a continuation of the preceding sentence, whereas it 
is a completely distinct and, as we have said, virtually 
a parenthetical sentence. It does not mean that 
Hezron and Hamul went clown to Egypt with Jacob, 



The Family of Judah. Ill 

or were then born, bat only that they were the sons 
of Pharez ; and this is mentioned because, according 
to the levirate law, they were to be reckoned the sons 
of Er and Onan, and became afterwards the founders 
of families in their names, or as their representa- 
tives.* 

As Bishop Colenso has constrained us to look more 
narrowly than we might have been inclined into this 
somewhat indelicate piece of family history, it may 
not be unprofitable, before leaving it, to ask, How 
does the bishop's own theory of the origin of the 
Pentateuch appear in the light of this piece of his- 
tory 1 What does this whole story about the family 
of Judah suggest in regard to the Bishop's theory 1 
We must wait, of course, till his second volume ap- 
pears before we can certainly know what that theory 
is ; and I speak now, therefore, subject to correction 
from the second volume when it appears. But so far 
as I understand his theory, it is this : That some 
learned Jew of later times (the times of the kings, 
or even later) wrote the Pentateuch as a sort 
of Eomance, which he did not intend people to 
believe, but wrote it from floating legends, for the 
glorification, doubtless, of the Jewish nation, or its 
great men. This theory, it is true, does not seem very 
self-consistent; hut let that pass. Perhaps the in- 
consistency may lie in our misapprehension. But 
what ideas, I ask, must this romancing Jew have had 
* See Appendix D. 



112 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

of the glory of his nation and of its great men, when 
he fancied, and wrote, and laid before his readers, in 
the sacred name of Jehovah, this gratuitous piece of 
impurity and offensiveness 1 — and it was gratuitous in 
him to record it, if he was not, both by a regard to 
truth and by the constraints of the spirit of inspiration, 
compelled to do so. For I do not believe that a viler 
or more disgusting scandal is to be found degrading the 
origin and blackening the escutcheon of any honour- 
able family, or any distinguished name, that has ever 
found a place in history, whether sacred or profane. 

And observe, this scandal affected the honour (as the 
author, if he lived in the time of the kings of Judah, 
must have known) of the very greatest and most re- 
nowned men of the Jewish nation. For from this 
very family of Judah, and from that branch of it 
which sprung out of his incestuous marriage with 
Tamar — including all the names of which we have 
been speaking — sprang David and Solomon, and all 
the kings and great men of the house of David. 
From it, too, the author must have known (if he knew 
anything at all of the higher aspirations and hopes of the 
nation) David's son and Lord, " Messiah the Prince," 
was expected to descend. And was it then for the 
glorification of these kings and great men, that the 
mind of this learned Jew conceived, and his hand 
penned, this romantic piece of family history? Is 
that a very credible theory 1 ? Will the Bishop get 
any person of common sense or common reflection to 
believe that % I hope not — not at least in England 



The War on Midian. 113 

or Scotland. He had better carry such theories to 
Natal, where they were born, and civilize or amuse 
his Zulu Kaffirs with them ; or he might carry them 
to the banks of the Suttlej and test, by means of 
them, the admirable wisdom of his " Sikh Gooroos." 
He has certainly done a very questionable thing for 
himself as well as others, in ventilating them on 
British soil.* 

I come now to the last of Bishop Colenso's objec- 
tions to the credibility of the Pentateuch of which I 
propose to speak in these lectures — that relating to 
the war on Midian. As it is the last in the Bishop's 
volume, it may be supposed to have been regarded by 
him as a very conclusive one. Yet it is so vague and 
inconclusive, that it is surprising that any man, on so 
momentous a question as the historical truth of the 
Pentateuch, should have risked his reputation for 
candour and common sense, by speaking of it as the 
Bishop does. He has a double objection to the in- 
spired narrative on this point — the one ethical, the 
other arithmetical. In other words, he regards the 
events recorded as both morally incredible and physi- 
cally impossible. 

It may be proper to look at the alleged physical 
impossibility first, — the account of which may be 

* After perusing the Bishop's second volume, the author 
finds nothing so essentially erroneous in the above remarks 
as to require either their correction or withdrawment. The 
Bishop's theory as to the origin of the Pentateuch is noticed 
in the following lecture. 

H 



114 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

given shortly thus : From the death of Aaron (re- 
corded in the 20th chapter of Numbers) to the 
day when Moses commenced his addresses to Israel 
in the plains of Moab (which addresses occupy the 
greater part or the whole of the book of Deuteronomy), 
Dr. Colenso calculates that only six months elapsed. 
Now, during that interval the book of Numbers re- 
cords such a variety of wars, journeys, and other 
events to have taken place, that they could not pos- 
sibly, in his estimation, be crowded into the space of 
six months. Accordingly, giving a month to this, 
and a fortnight to that, and another month to this 
other event, he fills up the six months before he has 
gone over much more than half the catalogue of re- 
corded events ; and one of those which he is thus 
obliged to leave out is the war on Midian, which, 
therefore, of course, as it must have taken a month 
or six weeks for itself, never took place. This is the 
physical or arithmetical objection. 

Now, without looking at all into the accuracy of 
these calculations, it must be remarked, that this is 
certainly a very summary and cavalier mode of treat- 
ing so ancient and important a history as that of the 
Pentateuch, and proving it untrue. Treated in this 
way, it seems very doubtful if any history whatever, 
even of the most recent events, could stand the test, 
and be believed. For the test itself, like a piece of 
India rubber, may be made what you please. It 
makes one feel as if it were but trifling to notice such 
cavils. Yet I make one or two remarks on this 
point : — 



The War on Midian. 115 

1. Bishop Colenso has neither proved, nor sought 
to prove, that all the events recorded in the book of 
Numbers, after the account of Aaron's death, took 
place during the six months referred to. No history 
can always record events precisely in the order in 
which they occur ; and a number of instances could be 
given in which the Mosaic history departs from that 
order. Indeed, the time of the very first of the 
events spoken of (the war with Arad the Canaanite) 
to which the Bishop allows a whole month, is a doubt- 
ful or disputed point. In all probability that war 
did not take place at that time at all; and thus a 
whole month out of the six is saved. 

2. It by no means follows that, because Bishop 
Colenso, who certainly was not present, thinks that 
this or the other event would occupy a month or 
fortnight, therefore it did so. Neither he nor we 
can be good judges of how much time would be 
required for any specified transaction. 

3. The time for the transactions recorded in the 
last chapters of Numbers did not necessarily termin- 
ate when Moses began to address the people in the 
plains of Moab. The period commonly allowed for 
those addresses contained in the book of Deuteronomy 
is five weeks ; and»what hindered Israel from carry- 
ing on war or performing any other of the recorded 
transactions at the same time ? 

4. But finally, and chiefly, I remark that several of 
the events referred to, to which Bishop Colenso al- 
lows successive periods, may have taken place con 



116 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

temporaneoushj. There was nothing to prevent them 
happening at the same time. The war with Og the 
king of Bash an, for instance, and the expedition 
against Midian, for each of which the Bishop demands 
a month or six weeks, might both be conducted at 
the same time with a third event, or series of recorded 
events, which happened in the plains of Moab. The 
scene of one of these wars lay to the north, and that 
of the other to the south or east, of the plains of 
Moab. In the one case the armies of Israel were 
doubtless led by their usual captain, Joshua ; in the 
other, we are expressly told, they were led by Phine- 
has, the son of Eleazar the priest. In the expedition 
against Midian only 12,000 men were engaged — a 
thousand from each tribe — and that surely left a suf- 
ficient force, out of 600,000 men able to go to war, to 
carry on another war at the same time. Look at 
America at the present moment. The Northern 
States have never been able to bring a much larger 
army into the field at one time than 600,000 men, 
and yet how many separate expeditions and wars do 
they carry on at the same time ; — wars in Virginia, 
in Kentucky, in Tennessee, at various points on the 
banks of the Mississippi, and I know not in how 
many other far separated places. # And what was to 
hinder the Israelites from doing something of the 
same kind ? 

Thus, I think, Bishop Colenso's arithmetical diffi- 
culty on this subject may be shown to be entirely 
unfounded : his physical impossibility vanishes away 



The War on Midian. 1 1 7 

like so many of his other objections, having neither a 
sound basis to stand on, nor a plausible pretence to 
support it. But what is to be said of his ethical 
objection — the incredibility of the story of the war 
on Midian, morally considered? "Ay, there's the 
rub." Had there been no ethical difficulty, I doubt 
very much whether we should ever have heard of the 
arithmetical one. But the immorality and cruelty of 
the war on Midian has always been a pet subject with 
the deist and infidel. Listen to the coarse and bold 
language of one of these in regard to it. Falsely as- 
suming that Moses and not God was the author of 
that expedition, he was not ashamed to rank Moses, 
on account of it, among the "most detestable of vil- 
lains that ever disgraced the name of man." Our 
bishop does not go this length. He — 

" Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike, 
Just hints a fault, and hesitates dislike." 

Or rather, I should say, he altogether absolves Moses 
from the villainy involved in the transaction by deny- 
ing the credibility of the history. The expedition 
and its results, whoever commanded it, would be as 
black in his estimation as they could be in any 
man's; but he, 

" With bated breath, and whispering thankfulness" 

declines to believe that they ever took place. Let us 
quote his words : — 

"But how thankful we must be, that we are no longer 
obliged to believe, as a matter of fact, of vital consequence 



118 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

to our eternal hope, the story related in Numbers xxxi., 
where we are told that a force of 12,000 Israelites ' slew all 
the males of the Midianites, took captive all the females and 
children, seized all their cattle and flocks (72,000 oxen, 61,000 
asses, 675,000 sheep), and all their goods, and burnt all their 
cities, and all their goodly castles,' without the loss of a single 
man, — and then, by command of Moses, butchered in cold 
blood all the women and children, ' except all the women- 
children, who have not known a man by lying with him.' 
These last the Israelites were to ' keep for themselves.' They 
amounted, we are told, to 32,000, v. 35, mostly, we must suppose, 
under the age of sixteen or eighteen. We may fairly reckon 
that there were as many more under the age of forty, and 
half as many more above forty, making altogether 80,000 
females, of whom, according to the story, Moses ordered 
48,000 to be killed, besides (say) 20,000 young boys. The 
tragedy of Cawnpore, where 300 were butchered, would sink 
into nothing, compared with such a massacre, if, indeed, we 
were required to believe it. And these 48,000 females must 
have represented 48,000 men, all of whom, in that case, we 
must also believe to have been killed, their property pillaged, 
their castles demolished, and towns destroyed, by 12,000 
Israelites, who, in addition, must have carried off 100,000 
captives (more than eight persons to each man), and driven 
before them 808,000 head of cattle (more than sixty-seven 
for each man), and all without the loss of a single man ! 
How is it possible to quote the Bible as in any way con- 
demning slavery, when we read here, v. 40, of 'Jehovah's 
tribute' of slaves, thirty-two persons?" (Pp. 143, 144.) 

JSow, passing over all questions about the inferen- 
tial numbers here mentioned, though some of them 
appear to be greatly exaggerated ; and passing over, 
likewise, all other exaggerations of statement or of col- 
ouring by which the author endeavours to make the 



The War on Midian. 119 

picture as hideous and black as possible, — I would 
call attention only to three things in this paragraph : — 
1. An invidious, and one can hardly help fearing, 
a dishonest misrepresentation of the sacred narrative. 
This is contained in the last sentence : "How is it 
possible to quote the bible as in any way condemning 
slavery, when we read here of Jehovah's tribute of 
slaves, thirty-two persons 1 " Now I ask any person 
of common intelligence to say if that sentence is not 
plainly designed to insinuate that the bible makes 
Jehovah the approver and abetter of slavery, because it 
speaks of Jehovah's tribute of slaves. No one can 
for a moment doubt that this is both its meaning and 
design. Well, I ask further, if Bishop Colenso would 
have had any plausible ground for this insinuation if 
he had explained that, by Jehovah's tribute, was 
meant that portion of the spoil which was, by law, to 
be given to the priests. Most certainly he would 
not : and yet this is the whole meaning of the phrase. 
The priests had, both by consuetudinary and divine 
law, a right to share in all the wealth of the nation. 
They lived by the altar, and what was God's was 
theirs, and what was theirs was God's. "Jehovah 
was their inheritance;" for they had no other pro- 
perty or means of support. And Bishop Colenso 
doubtless knew this as well as we do, for it is stated 
in the very next verse after that which he cites. He 
cites v. 40, and in v. 41 it is said, "And Moses gave 
the tribute which was Jehovah's heave-offering unto 
Eleazar the priest, as the Lord commanded Moses." 



120 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

Now what can be said of this way of " handling the 
Word of God?" Is it not " deceitful ? " Is it not 
shameful % Besides, if the God of the bible approves 
of slavery, why is Bishop Colenso a believer in Him % 
Why is he a Christian % Why is he a missionary 
bishop ? Why does he labour for the diffusion of 
this pestiferous book among his beloved Zulus, or any 
other class of heathens, who, according to him, are 
safer without it, and can only be injured by possess- 
ing it 1 For the New Testament must be held to 
approve of slavery just as much as the Old. It sup- 
ports everything approved of in the Old Testament, as 
divine, and, in the circumstances, worthy of God. It 
says, " All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, 
and is profitable ;" " the law is holy, just, and good." 
And may it not be added, that if Bishop Colenso 
seriously entertains such ideas of the bible, both Old 
and New Testaments, why does he remain in a church 
professedly founded on the bible, and take his share 
of the illegitimate wealth or spoil of that church 1 
Let him no longer touch it, for it is polluted : it 
smells of slavery and blood, and all manner of evil. — 
I mean that it does so, just because it is founded on 
the bible, and the bible, according to him, does so. 

2. Notice next the scandalous comparison which, 
in the above paragraph, the Bishop makes between 
the divinely commanded slaughter of the Midianites 
and the tragedy of Cawnpore. The latter, he says, in 
which "300 were butchered, would sink into nothing, 
compared with such a massacre, if, indeed, we were 



The War on Midian. 121 

required to believe it." It is plain that the massacre 
is the same, whether we believe it or not. Our be- 
lieving or not believing will alter neither the fact nor 
the moral character of the fact. The Pentateuch re- 
cords it, and the whole bible approves of it — there 
can be no doubt of that. But why this far-fetched 
comparison with the tragedy of Cawnpore 1 Do you 
not see 1 That treacherous and infamous villain, the 
Nana Sahib, butchered in cold blood only 300 men, 
women, and children; whereas Moses, "the man of 
God, who was faithful in all his house," ordered about 
120,000 to be massacred, most of them in cold blood 
also ! The mutinous and treacherous Sepoys of India, 
the worshippers of the bloody Siva and Kali, plun- 
dered and killed only 300 ; but the Israelites, the 
worshippers of Jehovah, the God of the bible, plun- 
dered and killed 120,000, besides carrying about a 
fourth of that number into captivity and slavery, and 
" all without the loss of a single man ! !" 

The Bishop seems to think that this last circum- 
stance adds to the moral as well as the natural 
incredibility of the Bible story, seeing he calls atten- 
tion to it repeatedly. Certainly it ought to have 
the very opposite effect on any Christian mind, or 
the mind of any man who believes in miracles ; for 
what was it but God's seal on this enterprize, as 
approved of and commanded by Him? What was 
it but a signal, though by no means singular, miracu- 
lous interposition of the God of battles, designed 
to teach his people confidence in Him, as on their 



122 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

side, and so to prepare them for the great enterprize 
on which they were just about to enter — the conquest 
of Canaan, and the extermination of God's enemies, 
the Canaanites? The Israelites were doing God's work 
in this war on Midian, and what wonder then that 
they should enjoy God's effectual protection, and re- 
turn from the enterprize not only laden with spoil, 
but free from loss, and filled, as they were, with won- 
der, and gratitude, and joy ? 

3. But lastly, there is also in the above paragraph an 
unprincipled suppression of truth. When treating of 
the moral character of this war, Bishop Colenso ought 
not to have kept out of view all reference to the 
origin or cause of the war. The moral character of 
all wars must be judged of from this point of view ; 
but though the reason of this war is plainly enough 
recorded, Bishop Colenso's book does not, so far as I 
have observed, contain the most distant allusion to it. 
And yet he must have examined the chapters in 
which this reason is repeatedly alluded to with micro- 
scopic care, for it was from them that he derived his 
arithmetical objection. What was the origin of this 
expedition against this particular tribe of Midianites, 
for its utter destruction? The following is a brief 
summary of what may be known concerning it from 
the Mosaic history : 

" Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages 
of unrighteousness," when returning from his vain 
attempt to curse Israel, stopped by the way among 
the Midianites who dwelt on the borders of Moab, 



Origin of the War on Midian. 123 

and who are, on this account, also called Moabites. 
Filled with envy against Israel, because he had 
lost the reward which Balak had promised him, and 
prompted, doubtless, also, by the inspiration of the 
devil, he advised the Midianites to tempt the Israel- 
ites to participate in an idolatrous and licentious fes- 
tival to their god, Baal-peor. They complied with 
his advice, and so seduced many Israelites into an 
open and unblushing apostacy from Jehovah, in con- 
sequence of which 24,000 of them perished. A prince 
of Israel also led a princess of Midian into the camp 
of Israel, and there, in the very presence of Jehovah, 
in his holy place, perpetrated those idolatrous and 
abominable crimes against which Jehovah, by Moses, 
had so often and earnestly warned his people. 

This was the origin of the war on Midian, and it may 
be said, therefore, to have been a war directly designed 
to support the supremacy of Jehovah among his own 
people and in his own house, as well as to preserve 
that people from utter apostacy and ruin. It was 
undertaken both for the honour of God and the exis- 
tence of his people, and was, beyond all question, a 
just and holy war. It was just as to its origin, being 
provoked by the Midianites themselves, — it was holy 
as to its end, being necessary for the preservation of 
the Church and cause of God. It was, therefore, 
conducted by Phinehas the priest, accompanied with 
the "holy instruments," the silver trumpets, which the 
priests alone used. It was authoritatively commanded 
by Jehovah, and was to be the last act of the holy, 



124 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

and honourable, and wonderful life — the almost super- 
human life — which Moses, the man of God, had lived, 
but which was now about to close with an equally 
wonderful death. " Avenge the children of Israel of 
the Midianites," said Jehovah to him, " and afterward 
shalt thou be gathered to thy people."* 

And what now is to be said of the incredible im- 
morality and cruelty of this war on Midian 1 or, rather, 
what is to be said of the man who is not ashamed to 
say that if we were (as we undoubtedly are) required to 
believe it, the massacre of Cawnpore would sink into 
nothing in comparison 1 It would appear as if Bishop 
Colenso's anxiety to prove the Pentateuch untrue had 
so deprived him of all moral sense, that he can discern 
no difference between the righteous judgments of the 
Supreme Ruler of the world, and the criminal actions 
of the vilest miscreants that breathe in that world. 

Is he prepared to say that Jehovah had no right to 
command this war, or that it is incredible that, in the 
circumstances, He should have done so ? This would 
only prove that he knows nothing of the God of the 
bible, and that consistency requires of him to reject 
the whole bible and its teachings. Yes, and those of 
all providence and all history also. For in what better 
a position is he placed, by merely disbelieving the 
history of the war on Midian ? Is this the only de- 
struction of human life, or "massacre," — to use his own 
word, — which he has ever heard of, which Jehovah, 
the God of the bible commanded, or even permitted ? 
* Numbers xxxi. 2. 



Origin of the War on Midian. 125 

Has he never heard of the divinely commanded exter- 
mination of the Canaanites 1 ? Perhaps he does not 
believe in this, more than in the war on Midian. Has 
he not then heard of the deluge 1 I know he does 
not believe in its universality ; but does he not be- 
lieve in it at all, or in the destruction of human life 
by God's own hand, that took place in it 1 Or does 
he not believe in the catastrophe of Sodom and Go- 
morrah, and the destruction of life that took place in 
it 1 Or what does he make of all the wars, famines, 
and pestilences that have been in the world, commis- 
sioned of the God of providence, or permitted by him, 
to destroy human life 1 Or what of the reign of dis- 
ease and death from the beginning even until now ? 
Does he deny these, or deny them as the work of a 
righteous God on account of sin 1 And if not, why 
does he yet think it incredible that God should 
send Israel to destroy these impure idolaters, the 
Midianites, and that Israel should obey 1 — especially 
when it is remembered that the provocation given by 
these Midianites was at once against Israel and the 
God of Israel. 

Whatever be Bishop Colenso's opinions on such 
subjects, let us gratefully remember that this and 
all the other "wars ot the Lord" — wars against the 
Amalekites, the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Philis- 
tines, the Moabites, and others, — were undertaken for 
the maintenance of God's sovereignty and his people's 
existence. They were preparations also for the com- 
iug of Christ and the universal diffusion of the gospel 



126 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

salvation. The question lying at the foundation of all of 
them was, whether "JEHOVAH, the Most High God, 
the possessor of heaven and earth," should reign — reign 
first over Israel, and ultimately over all the families 
of the earth, — or whether the race of man — fallen and 
guilty and depraved man — should universally be given 
over to the tender mercies of that enemy and. destroyer 
who had subjected them to his own will — the author of 
sin and death. Had these wars never taken place, 
humanly speaking, Bishop Colenso would never have 
been a Christian missionary to the Zulus, or to any 
other heathen nation ; for there would have been no 
gospel to preach, no gospel salvation to send to them. 
The Son of God would never have appeared in our 
world, or "died for our offences, and risen again for our 
justification." Our Christian faith and hope would 
never have existed ; and the universal world would 
still have been sitting " in darkness and the shadow 
of death." The Mosaic history unfolds the great first 
steps of preparation for the coming of Messiah, and 
the Mosaic law was a symbolical foreshadowing of 
his work and salvation.* 



* It has given satisfaction to the author to find the above 
sentiments supported by two English churchmen, neither of 
whom will be suspected of either bigotry or fanaticism. 
Canon Stanley, in his recent work on " The Jewish Church," 
quotes with approbation the following paragraph from the 
sermons of the late Dr. Arnold on the " Wars of the Israel- 
ites." "The Israelites' sword, in its bloodiest executions, 
wrought a work of mercy for all the countries of the world. 



Origin of the War on Midian. 1 27 

Whatever Bishop Colenso and other unbelievers, 
then, may think of these wars, the whole bible ap- 
proves of them, and every lover of the bible and 
sincere worshipper of the God of the bible — the God 
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ — will rejoice in 
them — rejoice in them not for their own sake, or the 
sin that rendered them necessary, but for the end in 
view, and the good that has come out of them. Hence 
the manner in which these " wars of the Lord " were 
celebrated, and the destruction of His enemies prayed 
for in those war-songs of Israel, which are still war- 
ranted to be sung in the Church of England, and in 
other Christian churches. 

"Do to them as to Midian, 
Jabin at Kison strand, 

They seem of very small importance to us now, those per- 
petual contests with the Canaanites and the Midianites, and 
the Ammonites and the Philistines, with which the books of 
Joshua, and Judges, and Samuel are almost filled. We may 
half wonder that God should have interfered in such quarrels, 
or have changed the course of nature in order to give one of 
the nations of Palestine the victory over another. But in 
these contests, on the fate of one of these nations of Pales- 
tine, the happiness of the human race depended. The Israel- 
ites fought not for themselves only, but for us. It might 
follow that they should thus be accounted the enemies of all 
mankind, — it might be that they were tempted by their very 
distinctness to despise other nations ; still they did God's 
work, — still they preserved unhurt the seed of eternal life, 
and were the ministers of blessing to all other nations, even 
though they themselves failed to enjoy it." — Stanley's Jewish 
Church, pp. 254, 255. 



128 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

And Sisera who at Endor fell, 
As dung to fat the land. 

That men may know that thou, to whom 

Alone doth appertain 
The name Jehovah, dost most high 

O'er all the earth remain." 

How could Bishop Colenso sing or invite others to 
sing this, any more than he can require of others the 
solemn declaration that they " unfeignedly believe all 
the canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testa- 
ment?" And if he cannot, how can he remain a 
bishop, or even a member of any Christian church, 
that authorises this and such like songs " to be sung 
in churches'?" 

But in conclusion, let me again remind you that 
the Pentateuch is the very foundation of the Gospel, 
and Moses the faithful servant and companion of 
Christ, and witness for Christ. You cannot deny the 
one without denying the other. You cannot contra- 
dict or malign Moses, or falsify his history, without 
departing from and dishonouring Christ. Moses, as 
Christ's servant, was faithful in all his house, " for a 
testimony of those things which were to be spoken 
after " — spoken by Christ himself and his apostles ; 
and Christ and his apostles, therefore, in turn, give 
their testimony to Moses, as to those things which 
were spoken by him before. You cannot dissolve this 
partnership between Christ and Moses, without apos- 
tatising from Christ and overturning the whole super- 
structure of Divine revelation. And if you do that, 



Conclusion. 129 

then you cease to be of Christ's " house," or God's 
"house" — "being aliens from, the commonwealth of 
Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, 
having no hope, and without God in the world " — 
"Whose house are we, if we hold fast the con- 
fidence, and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the 
end." 



LECTUEE V.* 

Exod. vi. 2, 3. — " And God spake unto Moses and said unto 
him, I am Jehovah : and I appeared unto Abraham, unto 
Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty 
{El-Shaddai) ; but by my name Jehovah was I not known 
to them." 

The second part or volume of Bishop Colenso's book 
is by no means so imposing as the first. Owing 
mainly to the matter with which it is filled, it will 
certainly fail to make the same impression upon the 
public mind ; and it may perhaps go some length to 
diminish the effect which the first produced. In it 
we have few or none of those telling processes of 
arithmetic and mensuration which, until the data on 
which they are founded and the principles on which 
they are conducted are closely examined, are so well 
fitted to confound and stumble the mind of the 
reader. Nor is there such an array of apparent dis- 
crepancies and physical impossibilities brought forward 
to demonstrate the falsehood of the Mosaic records. 

There are, indeed, two chapters of the second vol- 
ume appropriated to what the Bishop calls " signs of 
later date in the Pentateuch ; " but they are princi- 
pally occupied with real or apparent anachronisms 
* Delivered March 8, 1863. 



Bishop Colenso's Second Volume. 131 

and other indications of a later hand than that of 
Moses, — which have often been, or may easily be, ac- 
counted for by the consideration that inspired men of 
after times may have been led to introduce them, for 
the purpose of explaining and adapting the Scriptures 
more perfectly to readers of their own times. Ezra, 
» for instance, — whom both Jewish and Christian tradi- 
tion mention as the collector of all the books of the 
Old Testament written before his own day, and who 
is described in the inspired volume itself as " a ready 
scribe in the law of Moses, which the Lord God of 
Israel gave him, and of the words of the command- 
ments of the Lord, and of his statutes to Israel," — may 
have introduced by divine authority many of those 
explanatory notes which we find, both in the Penta- 
teuch and other books of Old Testament history.* 
But even if these apparent anachronisms had not this 
high origin, and could be accounted for only as un- 
warrantable interpolations of uninspired transcribers, 
they would no more derogate from the antiquity and 
authenticity of the sacred books than the similar 
interpolations, found in the New Testament and 
in all ancient writings, detract from their authenticity 
and value. So that these chapters of Bishop Col- 
enso's book, however much they may display the 
animus of their author and his determination to leave 
no stone unturned in order to the destruction of the 
authority of Moses and of the confidence of Christians 

* Prideaux, Connexion, Pt. 1, B. 5. 



132 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

in the whole bible, have very little novelty and still 
less power. 

The volume is chiefly occupied with arguments and 
criticisms, designed to prove that more than one 
author were employed in the production of the Penta- 
teuch, and that none of them could have lived long 
before the age of David. In this attempt the Eishop 
founds mainly on the fact, that in some parts of the 
Pentateuch the Hebrew term Elohim, i.e., God, is 
alone used for the Deity, while in other parts Jehovah, 
(which in our version is rendered Lord) and Jehovah- 
El ohim, i.e., Lord God, are also used as the name of 
the Supreme Being. He enters, accordingly, into a 
minute and laborious criticism of Hebrew words, and 
also gives tabular expositions of the use of the Divine 
names in the Psalms of David, to show that the term 
Jehovah was only coming into familiar use in the 
Psalmist's day ; and so tries to reach the conclusion 
which we have stated. Now, such an argument is at 
once too flimsy and too misty to produce a great or 
permanent impression on most readers. It may amuse 
the Hebrew scholar, and, it may be, even profit him, 
by leading him to deeper investigations on such sub- 
jects, but it can never convince or impress the mind 
of the ordinary reader of the Eible. Not one in a 
thousand could comprehend it ; nor, if he could, would 
any sincere inquirer after truth see any power in it to 
gainsay the ordinary evidence of the unity, antiquity, 
and genuineness of the law of Moses. 

In these circumstances I might have passed by the 



Bishop Colensos Theory. [133 

second volume altogether. For even though I had 
supposed the task necessary and myself competent for 
it, certainly to enter on a long and minute criticism 
of Hebrew words would be a very unsuitable work 
for a course of public lectures like this. But there 
are one or two things in the volume which are plain 
and palpable enough — which can easily be understood 
by any Christian audience, and are also the most 
important things in it ; for if they can be shown to be 
false, then I apprehend all the Bishop's labour comes 
to nothing, and his whole argument, like a house of 
cards, falls to the ground. 

The first of these more important things in the 
second volume which I notice, is the conclusion to 
which the Bishop comes, or, in other words, his theory 
in regard to the authorship of the Pentateuch. To 
this I made reference in last lecture, stating what, 
before having read the second volume, I understood 
it to be, — namely, that some Jewish author of the 
times of the kings, or later, had written the Penta- 
teuch as a sort of romance, and that it was not meant 
by him to be believed as true history. I now find 
that the Bishop's theory is in no essential respect 
better, and, in some points, much worse than this 
representation of it ; and I think it may be safely 
pronounced to be one of the most daring, impudent, 
and absurd impositions that ever was attempted, at 
least under the name of truth, and by a self-styled 
devotee of the truth, to be palmed on the Christian 



1 34 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

Church, or a Christian public. What is it? It is 
that the prophets Samuel, and Nathan, and Gad were 
the chief writers of the first four books of the Penta- 
teuch and the book of Joshua, and that " the book of 
Deuteronomy was written about the time of Josiah, 
and, as some suppose, by the hand of the prophet 
Jeremiah." Now observe how widely this theory 
operates to undermine and overturn not the authority 
of the Pentateuch merely, but our confidence in other 
parts of the Old Testament Scriptures also. For in 
aiming his blow at Moses, Bishop Colenso by it 
strikes down also all confidence in Samuel, Nathan, 
Gad, and Jeremiah, and, indeed, in all the Old Testa- 
ment prophets. For if these holy and inspired men 
could be supposed to forge the Pentateuch, and pub- 
lish their forgery under the name of Moses, nay, 
under that of Jehovah himself, what other piece of 
villany or falsehood were they not fit for 1 And what 
confidence can be any longer placed in any inspired 
prophet or man of God ? 

But are we not misrepresenting the Bishop's aim 
or words ? I answer : Of his aim we say nothing — it 
is apparently an inscrutable mystery. But I shall let 
you hear his own words. — In the early part of his 
volume he introduces the name of Samuel only cauti- 
ously and tentatively. He has a chapter headed thus : 
"Was Samuel the Elohistic writer of the Penta- 
teuch 1 ?" But in the course of his argument he waxes 
more confident, and gives his " concluding remarks " 
thus : — 



Bishop Colenso's Theory. 135 

" The preceding investigations have led us to the conclu- 
sion that the Pentateuch most probably originated in a noble 
effort of one illustrious man, in an early age of the Hebrew 
history, to train his people in the fear and faith of the Living 
God. For this purpose he appears to have adopted the form 
of a history, based upon the floating legends and traditions 
of the time, filling up the narrative, we may believe,— per- 
haps to a large extent, — out of his own imagination, where 
those traditions failed him. In a yet later day, though still, 
probably, in the same age, and within the same circle of 
writers, the work thus begun, which was, perhaps, left in a 
very unfinished state, was taken up, as we suppose, and car- 
ried on in a similar spirit, by other prophetical or priestly 
writers. To Samuel, however, we ascribe the Elohistic story, 
which forms the groundwork of the whole, though compris- 
ing, as we shall show hereafter, but a small portion of the 
present Pentateuch and book of Joshua — in fact, little be- 
sides about half of the book of Genesis and a small part of 
Exodus. 

" It would seem that large additions were made to this 
unfinished historical sketch of Samuel by his disciples, Nathan 
and Gad, or by some other prophetical or priestly writers of 
that and the following age ; and these included the principal 
Jehovistic portions of Genesis, as well as the greater part of 
the present books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. But 
though, as we believe, these portions of the Pentateuch were 
written, the history, when carefully examined, gives no sign 
of the Pentateuch itself being in existence in the age of 
Samuel, David, or Solomon, — much less of the Levitical laws 
being in full operation, known, honoured, revered, obeyed, even 
quoted or referred to, — as the contents of a book, believed to 
be Mosaic and Divine, would certainly have been, at least, 
by the most pious persons of the day. We shall have occa- 
sion hereafter fully to discuss this question, and see how far 
the actual historical facts, which may be gathered from the 
books of Samuel and Kings, and the writings of the Prophets, 



136 The Pentateitch Vindicated. 

tend to confirm the above conclusions. The hook of Deu- 
teronomy we have partly shown already, and shall show 
more fully, as has been said, in Part III., to have been written 
in a still later age." (Pp. 368-370.) 

What the Bishop has partly shown, or said, already 
concerning the book of Deuteronomy is found in this 
sentence, (p. 359), "The book of Deuteronomy was 
written about the time of Josiah, and, as some sup- 
pose, by the hand of the prophet Jeremiah." 

Now what do you think of this, ye Christian men 
and women 1 Nay, what do you think of it, ye 
learned scholars and commentators on the books and 
laws of Moses, of all Christian lands, and of all past 
Christian times'? — Ye reformers and fathers of the 
Christian Church 1 — Ye evangelists and apostles of 
the Lord Jesus Christ 1 — And you, too, ye Jewish 
rabbis and talmudists? and ye kings, priests, and pro- 
phets of the law itself? Here is a Christian bishop 
come from Zulu-land to tell you that all of you have 
been under a grievous illusion — a gross and shameful 
mistake. Ye have been supposing that the Penta- 
teuch was written by Moses, and has been in exist- 
ence since his day. Ye have all been reading it, and 
some of you commenting on it, under that hallucina- 
tion j and all your faith and hope have rested, so far, 
on this foundation. But Bishop Colenso, writing in 
the nineteenth century of the Christian era, tells you 
that you have been, all of you, in a complete and 
manifest error. The Pentateuch began to be written 
by Samuel; his "unfinished historical sketch" came, 



Bishop Golensds Theory. 137 

as was natural, into the hands of "his disciples, 
Nathan and Gad, or some other prophetical or priestly 
writers of that and the following age," who made 
"large additions" to it; but when and by whom the 
work was completed, and when the Levitical laws first 
came into full operation, and were " known, honoured, 
and obeyed, even quoted or referred to, as the contents 
of a book believed to be Mosaic and Divine," — all 
this is yet a mystery, and you must wait for the 
Bishop's third volume to have the mystery opened up. 
IsTow what answer are we to give to this ? In one 
aspect it may be truly said to be unanswerable ; for 
it involves such astounding statements, and demands 
such an amount of credulity on the part of the reader, 
that one can only wonder at the amazing effrontery of 
the writer. I have sometimes thought, when reading 
this second volume, that surely, after all, the jocular 
hypothesis of an eminent writer in Good Words must 
be the true one, viz., that the object of Bishop 
Colenso's book must be to ridicule, by carrying to 
the length of utter absurdity, the so-called art of the 
"higher criticism," by which German rationalists 
have of late been endeavouring to overturn all Scrip- 
ture history and doctrine. But then, the Bishop's 
apparent sincerity and professed devotion to truth, 
and especially the anomalous and painful position in 
which his book places him, soon dispel this idea, and 
bring back the question, "What, for the sake of truth 
and common sense, is to be said of the Bishop's theory 
as to the origin and authorship of the Pentateuch?" 



138 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

Now one answer, I think, might be, that it is inco- 
herent and self-destructive. It is so at least morally 
considered ; for it makes the Pentateuch to have 
originated in " a noble effort of one illustrious man 
to train the Hebrew people in the fear and faith of 
the living God" — which noble effort consisted in his 
writing and publishing a villanous forgery in the 
name of that God. Under the guise of a true history 
of the words and deeds of that true and living God, 
in the times of the fathers of the Hebrew people, he 
published a lying fable, framed " to a large extent," 
at least, "out of his own imagination ;" and this the 
Bishop calls a noble effort to train men in the fear 
and faith of the God of truth. What injustice he 
does to the supposed author or authors of this effort, 
I shall notice by and by ; but in the meantime, how 
obviously is the theory incoherent and self-destructive 
morally considered. 

Again, the Bishop's theory is contradicted by all 
Scripture. Throughout all Scripture, the Pentateuch 
is spoken of as " the law of Moses ; " never as the 
writing of Samuel, Nathan, or Gad. And here, per- 
haps, we might have adduced Samuel himself as giv- 
ing implicit testimony to the previous existence and 
authority of the law of Moses ; but as his own hon- 
esty and truth are in question, we may pass over him 
and call other witnesses : and the first we call is King 
David. He was intimately acquainted with all the 
three prophets, Samuel, Nathan, and Gad, and must 
have known whether they wrote the Pentateuch, or 
any part of it. And what does he testify ? 



Bishop Colenso's Theory. 139 

When on his death-bed, giving his last solemn charge 
to his son Solomon, he speaks of " the statutes, and 
commandments, and judgments, and testimonies of 
God, as written in the law of Moses;* but never 
does he speak of them as written by his contem- 
poraries, Samuel, Nathan, and Gad. In his Psalms, 
also, how many references have we to the same thing, 
as then well known, universally admitted, and fit to 
be rehearsed in the public praises of God. In the 
1 03d Psalm he says, that " Jehovah made known his 
ways unto Moses, and his acts unto the children of 
Israel." In the 105th Psalm, which is commonly 
ascribed to him, we have an epitome of the history of 
the patriarchs, and the Exodus, as contained in the 
Pentateuch, and the conclusion of it is, that God 
gave his people "the lands of the heathen, and they 
inherited the labour of the people that they might 
observe his statutes, and keep his laws ;" which evi- 
dently implies, that God's statutes and laws had been 
given before Israel entered into Canaan. 

Solomon, also, in his noble prayer at the dedica- 
tion of the temple, repeats the testimony of his father 
David : and he, too, was well acquainted at least 
with Nathan and Gad, and must have known whether 
they or Samuel had any hand in writing the Penta- 
teuch. Speaking before God, appealing to the high 
and holy one of Israel — in the most solemn of all 
conceivable acts of devotion — he acknowledges the 

* 1 Kings ii. 3. 



J 40 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

faithfulness of God to every word " of all his good t 
promise, which he had promised by the hand of 
Moses, his servant," and prays that the Lord their 
God would be with Israel, "as he had been with 
their fathers," and " incline their hearts unto him, to 
walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, 
and statutes, and judgments, which he commanded 
their fathers.'" * In this passage Solomon has a plain 
reference to Deut. xii. 10, 11, and supplies a flat con- 
tradiction to the substance of Bishop Colenso's state- 
ment, quoted above, about the existence of the Penta- 
teuch, and the knowledge of the Levitical laws in 
Solomon's days. And besides this, we have in the 
history of Solomon the recorded fact, that when "the 
ark of the covenant of the Lord " was placed in the 
temple, " there was nothing in it save the two tables 
of stone which Moses put there at Horeb, when the 
Lord made a covenant with the children of Israel, 
when they came out of the land of Egypt "f — a 
plain evidence that the history of the Exodus was 
then written and believed in, and the ark considered 
as a visible monument of its truth. 

Passing over intervening testimonies, let us come 
down to the reigns of Hezekiah and Josiah. At the 
one period we find " the brazen serpent that Moses 
had made " still existing ; but it was now destroyed, 
because it had become a temptation to idolatry ; and 
Hezekiah is said to have followed the Lord, and 
" kept his commandments, which the Lord com- 
* 1 Kings viii. 56-58. f 1 Kings viii. 5. 



Bishop Colenso's Theory. 141 

manded Moses."* Hezekiah also kept a great passover, 
" such as had not been kept since the time of Solo- 
mon ;" and it is particularly mentioned that, in keep- 
ing it, "the priests stood in their place, after their 
manner, according to the law of Moses, the man of 
God."f At the other period, the reign of Josiah, 
we read of the finding of the " Book of the Law in 
the house of the Lord," — probably the very copy 
written by the hand of Moses, and commanded by 
him to be laid in or by " the side of the ark of the 
covenant of the Lord, that it might be there for a 
witness " against Israel. J Accordingly, it is expressly 
called, in another place, " a book of the law of the 
Lord, by the hand of Moses." § Josiah also kept a 
great passover, even greater than that of Hezekiah, 
observing all things, " as it is written in the book of 
Moses ; so that there was no passover kept in Israel 
like it from the days of Samuel the prophet ; neither 
did all the kings of Israel keep such a passover 
as that which Josiah kept." || 

Passing again over the many references to the his- 
tory and law of Moses contained in the books of Ezra 
and Neherniah, and several of the Old Testament pro- 
phets, I remind you only farther of the language of 
Malachi, the last of the prophets : — " Eemember ye 

* 2 Kings xviii. 4, 6. f 2 Chron. xxx. 13-16. 

X 2 Kings xxii. 8-16 ; Deut. xxxi. 24-29. 
§ 2 Chron. xxxiv. 14, margin. See also Dathe, Booth- 
royd, &c. 



142 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto 
him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and 
judgments."* 

And so we come down once more to the testimony 
of Jesus Christ and his apostles. For they too 
have not once only, but again and again borne wit- 
ness to Moses as the writer of the whole Penta- 
teuch or Law, and as giving in it the words, the testi- 
monies and the laws of God. " Did not Moses give 
you the law," said Christ to the Jews, " yet none of 
you keepeth the law."f "The law was given by 
Moses," said the evangelist John, " but the grace and 
truth came by Jesus Christ.";}; And said the whole 
assembly of the apostles and elders at Jerusalem, 
"Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach 
him, being read in the synagogue every Sabbath 
day."§ 

But enough ; I feel almost ashamed of repeating 
these proofs of the authorship of the Pentateuch in 
the hearing of an assembly of professing Christians. 
But the unspeakable audacity of the Bishop of Natal 
has compelled me ; and I think they are more than 
sufficient to show that his theory is contradicted by 
all scripture, and has been framed and published in 
shameless defiance of all scripture. 

Further, Bishop Colenso's theory involves supposi- 
tions altogether incredible. It involves the supposi- 
tion, for instance, that the Levitical law, with all its 

* Mai. iv. 4. f John vii. 19—23. 

X John i. 17. I Acts xv. 21. 



Bishop Golensds Theory. 143 

unnatural, un meaning, expensive, and burdensome 
ritual (for that ritual was both unnatural and un- 
meaning, if it was not " Mosaic and Divine "), must 
have been someway, no one can now tell how, im- 
posed upon the self-willed and stiff-necked Jewish 
nation, after it had reached the very zenith of its 
power and grandeur, and when neither Divine autho- 
rity nor ancestral prescription required them to sub- 
mit to it. This, if necessary, could easily be shown 
to be an insuperable objection to the Bishop's theory 
— even though it had been otherwise unobjectionable. 
But without dwelling on it, I go on to remark,* 

Lastly, that this theory is most injurious to the 
fair fame of the holy prophets and distinguished men 
of God, to whom the Bishop ascribes the author- 
ship of the Pentateuch. Of course he cannot mean 
that Samuel, Nathan, and Gad were under the in- 
spiration of the Spirit of God when they wrote 
their " contributions " to the Pentateuch, for if they 
were, then not only would the whole Mosaic his- 
tory (contrary to Bishop Colenso's whole argument) 
be true, but it would be more wonderful and divine 
than on the supposition that Moses wrote it. Every 
fact, and incident, and truth which that history con- 
tains, must, in that case, have been revealed to Samuel, 
Nathan, or Gad by direct revelation from heaven, 
which, if Moses wrote it, was not at all necessary. 
But there was no inspiration in the case ; and yet 
these men profess to record the acts of God, to give 
* Appendix, E. 



144 TJie Pentateuch Vindicated. 

the words of God, and to reveal the authoritative 
laivs of God. They do it on their own authority in 
the name of Moses. But Moses himself, so far as we 
can know, may be a mere name, and all his personal 
history a fable. We have no evidence, even of his 
existence, save through these men and their " unhis- 
torical" romance. And even supposing the real ex- 
istence of Moses, what is their conduct but the taking 
both of God's name and Moses' name in vain — mak- 
ing use of them to support a wicked imposture ? Yes, 
according to this Christian bishop, Samuel and his 
two disciples were wicked impostors, and are to be 
classed, not as the bible classes them with holy men 
of God, but with the basest of deceivers and villains. 

I have perhaps spent more time on the Bishop's 
theory of the origin of the Pentateuch than it de- 
serves : let us now come to the second of the more 
important matters which his volume contains — per- 
haps the most important matter in his whole book — 
for it lies at the foundation of the Bishop's whole 
theory about the Elohistic and Jehovistic writers of 
the Pentateuch. Not only so, it seems to he also at 
the foundation of a controversy which has long ex- 
isted in Germany between rationalist and orthodox 
divines, as to the origin and composition of the Pen- 
tateuch, which, conducted as it has hitherto been, 
is not likely to be soon settled. It relates to the use 
of- the name Jehovcdi in the Pentateuch, and more 
especially in the book of Genesis, and may be sum- 



The Name Jehovah in Genesis. 145 

ciently brought before you in the following extracts 
from the Bishop's volume. After quoting our text 
and context, he writes (Pp. 230-232) :— 

" The above passage cannot, as it seems to me, without a 
perversion of its obvious meaning, — the meaning which 
would be ascribed to it by the great body of simple-minded 
readers, who have never had their attention awakened to the 
difficulties, in which the whole narrative becomes involved 
thereby, — be explained to say anything else than this, that 
the name, Jehovah, was not known at all to the patriarchs, but 
was now for the first time revealed, as the name by which 
the God of Israel would be henceforth distinguished from all 
other gods. 

"So Professor Lee admits, who in his Hebrew Lexicon 
explains the word Jehovah to be — the most sacred and 
unalienable name of God, unknown, however, to the patri- 
archs ; it is not, therefore, more ancient in all probability than 
the time of Moses. 

"And so Josephus writes, Ant. ii. 12. 4 — Wherefore God 
declared to him (Moses) his holy name, which had never 
been discovered to men before. 

" But then we come at once upon the contradictory fact, 
that the name, Jehovah, is repeatedly used in the earlier 
parts of the story, throughout the whole book of Genesis. 
And it is not merely employed by the writer, when relating 
simply, as an historian, in his own person, events of a more 
ancient date, in which case he might be supposed to have intro- 
duced the word, as having become, in his own day, after hav- 
ing been thus revealed, familiar to himself and his readers : 
but it is put into the mouth of the patriarchs themselves, as 
Abraham, xiv. 22, Isaac, xxvi. 22, Jacob, xxviii. 16. 

" Nay, according to the story, it was not only known to 

these, but to a multitude of others, — to Eve, iv. i, and Lamech, 

v, 29, before the Flood, and to Noah, after it, ix. 26,— to 

Sarai, xvi. 2, Kebekah, xxvii. 7, Leah, xxix. 35, Eachel, 

K 



146 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

xxx. 24, — to Laban also, xxiv. 31, and Bethuel, xxiv. 50, 
and Abraham's servant, xxiv. 27, — even to heathens, as 
Abimelecb, the Philistine king of Gerar, his friend, and his 
chief captain, xxvi. 28. And, generally, we are told that, as 
early as the time of Enos, the son of Seth, ' then began men 
to call upon the name of Jehovah,' iv. 26, though the name 
was already known to Eve, according to the narrative, more 
than two centuries before. 

" The recognition of the plain meaning of Exodus vi. 2-8, 
such as that quoted above from Professor Lee (a writer of 
undoubted orthodoxy), would be enough at once to decide 
the question as to the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch. 
If the name originated in the days of Moses, then Moses 
himself, certainly, in writing the story of the ancient Patri- 
archs, would not have put the Name into their mouths, much 
less into those of heathen men, nor could he have found it so 
ascribed to them in an older document. Professor Lee's 
view, therefore, would require us to suppose that, if Moses 
wrote the main story of the Exodus, and of his own awful 
communications with God, as well as the Elohistic portions 
of Genesis, yet some other writer must have inserted the 
Jehovistic passages. But then it is inconceivable that any 
otber writer should have dared to mix up, without any dis- 
tinction, his own additions with a narrative so venerable and 
sacred, as one which had actually been written by the hand 
of Moses. The interpolator must have known that the older 
document was not written by Moses, and had no such sacred 
character, attached to it." 

The Bishop then goes on to argue that the ordinary 
modes of reconciling these discrepancies, as fonnd in 
Kurtz, Kalisch, Hengstenberg, &c, are entirely un- 
satisfactory, in which I agree with him. The truth 
is, so far as I am aware, no tolerable solution of this 
difficulty has ever been given; and it may seem there- 



The Name Jehovah.in Genesis. 147 

fore in no small degree presumptuous in me, even 
to attempt to do what so many deeply learned divines 
have failed to do. But the explanation which I pro- 
pose to give does not require much learning either to 
give it or to judge of it. It may have, and perhaps 
has, been seen by many a simple-minded believing 
reader of the bible, who never had the opportunity of 
making it public — who never knew even of the learned 
dust that has been raised around the question by 
divines. And as the Bishop of Natal has challenged 
such simple-minded readers of the bible to say what 
they think of this difficulty, it is as one of these that 
I presume to take up the challenge and answer him. 
I do so the more readily that I believe that there are 
hundreds here who, without knowing one word of 
Hebrew, may, by a little attention and the careful 
study of their English bibles, fully satisfy themselves 
whether the explanation be a sound and satisfactory 
one or not. I shall give it as shortly as possible in a 
few propositions. 

My first proposition is, that there can be no 
doubt whatever that the term Jehovah was known 
as an appropriate and personal name of the one liv- 
ing and true God, from the very beginning. This 
proposition, I think, must be at once admitted by all 
" simple-minded" believers in Divine revelation. I 
ground it not only on the fact that in the inspired 
narrative the name Jehovah is put into the mouth of 
Eve, and Lamech, and Noah, and Abraham, and 
others, but also on the meaning of the term itself. 



148 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

That meaning is almost universally allowed, as indeed 
it is virtually explained in Scripture to be, the self- 
existent, unchangeable, and eternal Being. And if so, 
then the appropriateness of the term as a name of the 
Supreme Being, the Creator of all things, is a direct, 
and immediate, and obvious deduction of reason itself. 
Even a child might draw this inference ; for however 
great be the mystery involved in the self- existence 
and eternity of God, no one can refuse or help seeing 
and believing the corollary, that the great First cause 
of all other beings must Himself be uncaused, self- 
existent, and eternal, — i.e., He must be Jehovah — He 
who was, and is, and is to come. 

This, then, I think, is abundantly clear, and so cer- 
tain that, though all the learned divines of Christen- 
dom were to assert that Adam, Seth, Enoch, Noah, 
&c, were ignorant of the name Jehovah as applicable 
to the Deity, we would be warranted, as rational men 
and believers in Scripture, to dissent from them, and 
say they must be under a mistake. 

My second proposition is, that it is equally certain 
that the Divine person who appeared visibly to the 
patriarchs, and conversed with them, and entered as 
the representative of Jehovah into covenant with 
them, did not take the name Jehovah to himself- — 
did not make himself known, or enter into covenant 
with them, by this name. This is also undoubtedly 
certain. It is implied indeed in the very language 
of our text, which originates the difficulty ; in which 
this divine person says (Exod. vi. 3), "I appeared 



The Name Jehovah in Genesis. 149 

unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the 
name of Goo Almighty (El-Shaddai) ; but by my 
name Jehovah was I not known (made known) to 
them." The same thing is evident also from the 
record in Genesis. Thus the name by which this 
divine person calls himself in Gen. xvii. 1, 2, 
when he " appeared " to Abraham and entered into a 
covenant with him, w T as not Jehovah, but God Al- 
mighty, or El-Shaddai : "I am the Almighty God, 
walk before me and be thou perfect, and I will make 
my covenant between me and thee, and I will multi- 
ply thee exceedingly." Eead the whole chapter, 
and mark particularly that this was a visible ap- 
pearance of a Divine person to Abraham ; and that 
the communications which followed between God 
and the patriarch were sensible and oral. Accord- 
ingly, we are told that at the conclusion of these 
communications (verse 22), the Divine person "left off 
talking with him, and God went up from Abraham." 
Our proposition is supported also by other instances, 
in which this revealed God is spoken of as the cove- 
nant God of the patriarchs. In Gen. xxviii. 3, when 
Isaac conveys the covenant blessing to Jacob, he uses 
the covenant name only, and says, " God Almighty 
(El-Shaddai) bless thee and make thee fruitful," &c. 
In Gen. xxxv. 9-11, we are told that God appeared 
unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padan-Aram, 
and blessed him ;" and that the name again used was 
the covenant name, God Almighty (El-Shaddai), 



150 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

and so in various other instances.* How plain is it, 
then, that the covenant name by which God was 
made known to the patriarchs, and by which especially 
that Divine person, who " appeared" visibly to them 
and entered into covenant with them, was made 
known to them, was not Jehovah but El- Shad J ai. 
And T need hardly remind you here of the importance 
of a name in such transactions as covenants. The 
names of the two parties not only tell between whom 
a covenant is made — not only identify the parties — 
but contain also the chief pledges for the fulfilment of 
its promises. They are, like the name in a promissory- 
note in mercantile affairs, the measure of the security 
of the blessings promised in the covenant. 

But not to dwell on this, my third proposition is, 
that the Divine person who "appeared'' to the 
patriarchs and entered into covenant with them by 
the name El-Shaddai, and who "appeared" to Moses, 
and entered into covenant with Israel by the name 
Jehovah, was the Second person of the Godhead — the 
Lord Jesus Christ in his pre-existing nature and con- 
dition as God. This proposition is the hinge on 
which our explanation of the difficulty before us turns, 
and I beg your attention to it. There can be no doubt 
among intelligent Christians that Christ, in his pre- 
existing nature, was the Divine person who "ap- 
peared " to Moses at the bush, and styled himself the 
I AM, who also, on the occasion referred to in the pas- 
sage now before us, revealed his name Jehovah to Moses, 
* Gen. xliii. 14 ; xlriii. 3 ; xlix. 25. 



The Name Jehovah in Genesis. 151 

and who, by this name, entered into covenant with 
Israel at Sinai. Though there were no other proof of 
this than Christ's own words, " Before Abraham was 
I am," they would suffice. But Scripture is full of 
proofs of this truth ; and it is a truth most surely be- 
lieved by all who intelligently believe in Him, who 
was the " King and Holy One in the midst of Israel," 
their Eedeemer, and Lawgiver, and Lord — "God over 
all, blessed for ever." * 

Now, if Christ was the Divine person who appeared 
to Moses and revealed His name Jehovah to him, it 
follows plainly from His own words, that He was also 
the person who appeared to the patriarchs by the name 
El-Shaddai, and entered into covenant with them 
by that name. He expressly says so (Exod. vi. 3), 
and it must be true ; and there is abundance of other 
evidence for the same thing. But I shall only quote 
at present the language of Jacob when blessing the 
sons of Joseph in Egypt. He said, "God, before 
whom my fathers, Abraham and Isaac, did walk, 
the God who fed me all my life long unto this day, 
the Angel who redeemed me from all evil, bless 
the lads," &c. Now here is a Divine person, and 
evidently El-Shaddai, the covenant God of Abra- 
ham, and Isaac, and Jacob, called also an Angel or 
Messenger : and who was he 1 and whose messenger was 
he 1 Plainly the Second person of the Godhead, who, in 
his mediatorial office and relations, is the servant or 

* See the author's Opinions concerning Jesus Christ, second 
Edition, p. 169 ff. 



1 52 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

messenger of the First person, and is called also, in 
various parts of Scripture, " the Angel of Jehovah," 
" the Angel in whom was God's name," " the Angel of 
the covenant;" of whom the prophet Hosea speaks 
when he says of Jacob, " He took his brother by the 
heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power 
with God ; yea, he had power over the Angel and 
prevailed ; he found Him in Bethel, and there He 
spake with us ; even Jehovah, God of hosts, Jehovah 
is his memorial." 

Supposing these things to be admitted, I come now 
to the fourth and last proposition which I have to 
state, which contains my solution of the difficulty now 
before us. It is this, That though from the beginning 
the name Jehovah was Jcnoicn as that of the Eternal 
Deity — the invisible and incomprehensible God, it was 
not known to be a name belonging also to the visible 
representative and Angel of God, the second person 
of the Godhead, till both at the bush and in Egypt 
the secret was revealed to Moses. I state the propo- 
sition as fully and plainly as I am able, in order that 
every one may understand it, and be prepared to 
test it. I believe that it accounts completely for the 
manner in which the name Jehovah is used in Gene- 
sis, and removes entirely the difficulty on which 
Bishop Colenso and others build their theory in re- 
gard to the origin and authorship of the Pentateuch, 
or at least of the book of Genesis. I think that it 
adds great strength to the ordinary belief that Moses, 
and he alone, wrote the book of Genesis ; and it im- 



The Name Jehovah in Genesis. 153 

plies that he must have written it after the appear- 
ance of Christ to him at the bush, and after the 
revelation of His name Jehovah to him in the land 
of Egypt. I think, moreover, that it is the only ex- 
planation which easily harmonises with that belief, and 
removes all difficulty from it. 

But how is this proposition to be clearly and con- 
vincingly proved 1 I answer, leaving the intelligent, 
Christian reader to go fully into the examination 
of the matter for himself, I shall make a few re- 
marks, showing more distinctly what the question to 
be settled is, and how it may be so. 

And first, there are two ways in which the name 
Jehovah is used in Genesis, and, indeed, in all the 
historical parts of Scripture : first, by the historian in 
his own narratives, as when he himself says, 'Jehovah 
did or said this or that ;' and secondly, in his reports 
of the language of others, when he puts the name 
into their mouths, and makes them use it. In the 
one case, evidently, the historian himself alone is re- 
sponsible for the use of the term, and from that use 
we may learn what he knew of its application, or how 
he understood it, ivhen he wrote his narratives. In 
the other case, again, if at least the historian has 
accurately reported the language of others, we may 
learn what they, and those to whom they spoke, knew 
of the meaning or application of the name. For in- 
stance, if "the angel of Jehovah, the angel of the 
Covenant," in speaking to the patriarchs, called him- 
self Jehovah j or if the patriarchs, addressing Him, 



154 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

or speaking concerning Him, to any of their fellow- 
men, designated Him by this name, then we would 
conclude that they knew it to belong to Him — to be 
His name ; but if they never used it with reference 
to Him, we must necessarily conclude that they did 
not know that it belonged to Him. 

"Well, these things being kept in mind, I have to 
remark again, That the name Jehovah occurs in the 
first way, or narratively, one hundred and sixteen 
times in the whole book of Genesis, and sixty-nine 
times in that part of it (chapters xii. — 1.) which 
contains the history of the patriarchs. Confining our 
attention to the latter, seeing the question chiefly 
relates to patriarchal times, if you examine these 
sixty-nine instances, you will find that Moses, in his 
narrative, uses the name Jehovah indiscriminately, 
both for the invisible and omnipresent God, who was 
never seen, and for that angel of God — that visible 
person of the Godhead, who often appeared and con- 
versed with men. One or two instances of this will 
suffice to make the matter both clear and certain. 
Let us take first the narrative concerning the appear- 
ance of this angel to Hagar in the wilderness, Genesis 
xvi. 7-14 : — 

"And the angel of Jehovah found her by a fountain of 
water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur. 
And he said, Hagar, Sarai's maid, whence earnest thou? and 
whither wilt thou go ? A.nd she said, I flee from the face of 
my mistress Sarai. And the angel of Jehovah said unto 
her, Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her 
hands. And the angel of Jehovah said unto her, I will 



The Name Jehovah in Genesis. 155 

multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not he numhered 
for multitude. And the angel of Jehovah said unto her, 
Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt 
call his name Ishmael; because Jehovah hath heard thy 
affliction. And he will be a wild man; his hand will be 
against every man, and every man's hand against him ; and 
he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren. And she 
called the name of Jehovah that spake unto her, Thou God 
seest me : for she said, Have I also here looked after him 
that seeth me ? Wherefore the well was called Beerlahai-roi ; 
behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered." 

Here the word Jehovah occurs, narratively, four 
times in the expression " the angel of Jehovah," and 
once by itself. It occurs also once in the reported 
language of the angel. !Now, in the first four in- 
stances, it is given evidently to the invisible person 
of the Godhead, from whom the angel came — whose 
angel he was ; while in the sixth instance it is given 
to the angel himself. " Hagar," we are told, " called 
the name of Jehovah that spake to her, Thou God 
seest me (or the visible God)* Thus in this one 
passage the name Jehovah is given by Moses to both 
persons of the Godhead spoken of — both the Father 
and the Son. 

Another and still more perspicuous instance of the 
same double use of the name occurs in the 19th chap- 
ter of Genesis, where in one verse you have it applied 
both to the visible and invisible persons of the God- 
head. In the narrative of the destruction of Sodom, 
&c, it is said (v. 24), "Then Jehovah rained upon 

* El Boi, the visible God. See Boothroyd, Datke, &c. 



156 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from 
Jehovah ont of heaven." In the first instance here 
the name is evidently given to that Divine person 
who appeared to Lot, and said to him (v. 22), " Haste 
thee, escape thither (i. e., to Zoar), for I cannot do 
anything until thou be come thither." But in the 
other instance it is as evidently given to that Divine 
person who was invisible — who was in heaven : the 
one rained fire and brimstone from the other out of 
heaven — the one was the visible agent, the other the 
invisible source or author of this terrible, but righte- 
ous and holy, judgment of God. 

Such are two specimens of the manner in which 
the name Jehovah is used in the narrative of Genesis, 
by the historian himself. And they are sufficient to 
show that, when Moses wrote that narrative, the 
secret which is said to have been hid from the patri- 
archs had already been revealed to him— that he now 
knew that the name Jehovah belonged to that "angel of 
God," that "visible God," who made himself known 
to the patriarchs as El Shaddai. Whether any other 
inferences than this may be deducible from this use 
of the name by Moses, I shall not at present stay to 
inquire ; but this inference, if Moses was indeed the 
writer of Genesis, is abundantly evident and alto- 
gether unquestionable. 

But let us turn to the reported use of the name Jeho- 
vah, and see what inferences are deducible from it. In 
this way the word occurs, I think, forty-nine times in 
all in the book of Genesis, and forty-six times in that 



The Name Jehovah in Genesis. 157 

part which contains the history of the patriarchs ; and 
in not one of these instances, so far as I can judge, is it 
used as the name of that visible person of the God- 
head, that angel of God, who conversed with the pat- 
riarchs, and appeared to Moses at the bush. I wish 
to speak here subject to correction; for it is not always 
easy to perceive, at first sight, who is the person 
spoken of by the name ; but so far as I have been 
able to examine and judge, this is the fact : In re- 
ported speech, in the book of Genesis, there is not 
one instance in which the name Jehovah is employed, 
whether by the patriarchs or by those conversing with 
them, to designate the " Angel of the covenant," — 
the Angel of the bush. And if so, the inference seems 
unavoidable, that the patriarchs did not know that 
the name belonged to Him. They knew that it be- 
longed to the " Most High God, the possessor of 
heaven and earth" — the invisible and omnipresent 
Deity — but they did not know that it belonged also 
to that representative and messenger of God who 
"appeared" to them, and conversed with them, and 
entered into covenant with them. They knew Him as 
FA Shaddai, but they did not know Him by His name 
Jehovah. 

Leaving it to the reader to go over these forty-six or 
forty-nine instances of the reported use of the name Je- 
hovah in Genesis, let us notice only one or two to show 
what was at least the general usage in regard to it. 
And the very first instance that occurs in the history 
of the patriarchs is very explicit. It is found in the 



] 58 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

1 4th chapter of Genesis in the language which Abrain, 
when returning from the discomfiture of the confede- 
rate kings, addressed to the King of Sodom (v. 22, 
23), "I have lifted up my hand unto Jehovah, the 
most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth, 
that I will not take from a thread even to a shoe 
latchet, and that I will not take anything that is 
thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram 
rich." Now it is quite obvious that Jehovah here 
means the omnipresent and invisible God, that being 
in whose name men swear, and to whom all vows are 
directly addressed. No commentator, so far as I 
know, has disputed this, or thought of disputing it. 

Other two instances of the reported use of the 
name Jehovah are found in the following chapter, 
when Abram says (v. 2), " Jehovah God (or rather, 
Lord Jehovah ; for the first name is Adonai), what 
wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the 
steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus % " 
And again (v. 8), "Jehovah God (Lord Jehovah), 
whereby shall I know that I shall inherit this land 1 " 
In these instances it is again obvious that the Divine 
person addressed was the first person of the Godhead, 
the hearer of prayer. It has sometimes been sup- 
posed, indeed, that the expression, "the word of the 
Lord," in this context, refers to the personal Word of 
God, the second person of the Godhead, and that the 
passage relates therefore to a visible appearance of the 
angel of Jehovah; but this is certainly a mistake, 
seeing we are expressly told that it was "in a vision" 



The Name Jehovah in Genesis. 159 

that the word came, — not in a sensible manifesta- 
tion, but in a " vision of the night, when deep sleep 
falleth on men." As in the case of the prophets, 
then, the coming of the word of the Lord must be 
understood as meaning the receiving of a revelation 
from God ; and independently of this, it is plain from 
the whole narrative that no visible appearance of a 
Divine messenger, and no sensible or oral communi- 
cations by that messenger, were made to Abram. 
And this has been the opinion of at least the general- 
ity of commentators.* 

But without examining more instances of the re- 
ported use of the name Jehovah, at present, let us 
adduce two passages which go far to demonstrate that 
the patriarchs did not know this name to belong to 
the angel of Jehovah, the person of the Godhead, 
who appeared to them and conversed with them. 
The one is Gen. xviii. 1-33, in which we have an 
account of this Divine person appearing to Abraham, 
along with two created angels, partaking of Abra- 
ham's hospitality, promising him a son, and inform- 
ing the patriarch of his design in regard to the 
destruction of Sodom ; in it we have also Abraham's 
intercession for Sodom. Now if you read this whole 
chapter attentively you will find the following strik- 
ing attestations of what we maintain in regard to the 
use of the name Jehovah : — 

1st. That the historian, in his own narrative, uses 
the name seven times as the name of the Divine per- 
* See Clarke, Dathe, Rosenm, Kurtz, &c. 



160 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

son who had appeared to Abraham, and conversed 
with him.* 

2d]y. That this Divine person himself is reported 
to have used the name three times, but not as his 
own name, but the name of Him, the invisible God, 
whom he represented, and in whose name he spoke :t 
and 3dly. That Abraham, in addressing this Divine 
person, does not use the name Jehovah even once. 
Abraham certainly knew Him to be a Divine person ; 
for he calls Him by another Divine title, Adonai, he 
describes Him as " the judge of all the earth," he 
speaks to Him as having the power to save or destroy 
Sodom, and he describes himself as but "dust and 
ashes before Him ; " but he never addresses Him as 
Jehovah. In all the five instances he addresses Him 
as Adonai, my Lord. And what, then, can we conclude 
from this, but that Abraham did not know Jehovah 
to be His name. Moses knew it when writing his 
narrative; for to him the secret had then been re- 

* See vv. 1, 13, 17, 20, 22, 26, 33. 

f See vv. 14, 19 — That the Divine speaker did not mean 
himself in these verses is obvious from this, that Abraham 
did not so understand him, Had the patriarch understood 
him to appropriate the name Jehovah to himself, it would 
have been utterly unaccountable and inconsistent with all 
the other words and all the character of the patriarch, that 
he should have refused Him the honour of addressing Him 
by that name. And that the name is here given only to 
the First person of the Godhead, the invisible Jehovah, has 
been the prevailing, I suppose, the uniform understanding 
of commentators. 



The Name Jehovah in Genesis. 161 

vealed. But Abraham did not know it, when making 
his intercession, for to him the secret had not been 
revealed. 

The other passage to which I call your attention is, 
if possible, still more clearly demonstrative of the 
same thing. It is that which relates to the remark- 
able encounter of Jacob with the same Divine person, 
the visible God and angel of God, at Peniel. If we 
read carefully the whole of the thirty-second chapter 
of Genesis, we find these things in it : 1st. That 
Jacob had that same day, on the same spot, presented 
a prayer to God — to the invisible God, to whom 
prayer is made — in which he used the name Jehovah. 
" Jehovah, who saidst unto me, Return unto thy coun- 
try and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with 
thee. . . . Deliver me, I pray thee, out of the hand 
of my brother," &c. 2dly. It was when Jacob was 
evidently waiting for an answer to this prayer (for 
he could not leave the spot until he had some answer 
from God), that the "man," the "angel," the " God," 
came to him, and " wrestled with him till the break- 
ing of the day." Jacob well knew this man to be 
God, or a Divine person, for he called Him God, 
and entreated Him for a blessing. " He called the 
name of the place Peniel (i. e., the face of God) ; for 
(he said) I have seen God, face to face, and my life 
is preserved." But not only did he not call Him 
Jehovah, but, as if for the very purpose of showing 
us that Jacob did not know that this was His name, 
we are told that he asked of the Divine wrestler to 
L 



162 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

tell him His name, and that his petition was refused. 
"Tell me, I pray thee," said the patriarch, "thy 
name;" but the only answer was, "Wherefore is it 
that thou dost ask after my name 1 And He blessed 
him there." 

Now what can possibly be inferred from this? 
again, but that the patriarchs did not know that 
the name Jehovah belonged to this Divine person 
that " appeared " to them — this visible God, and 
angel of God ? They knew that it belonged to the 
invisible and omnipresent Deity ; they were in the 
habit of praying to Him every day by this name ; 
thy conversed about Him as their God — their cove- 
nant God, through His representative — by this name. 
Even heathens who had intercourse with them knew 
that this was their name for the supreme Deity ; but 
they did not know that the same name belonged to 
him who was His angel and representative also. 
They did not know what was the peculiar per- 
sonal name of that angel; unless it was El-Shad- 
dai, by which name he had entered into covenant 
with them, on Jehovah's behalf. Now this was the 
very person who appeared to Moses, at the bush, and 
in Egypt, and revealed His name Jehovah to him 
there, and said, " I appeared to Abraham, and Isaac, 
and Jacob as El-Shaddai, but by my name Jehovah 
was I not made known to them."* 

Such, then, is the explanation which I propose of 
* Appendix, F. 



The Name Jehovah in Genesis. 163 

the difficulty which Bishop Colenso says, in his pre- 
face, " is really the pivot, as it were, on which the 
whole argument (of his second volume) turns ; '* and 
if this explanation be sound, that whole argument, of 
course, falls to the ground — it has no fixed point — no 
Archimedean fulcrum to rest on, and the Bishop's 
bold attempt to move the world must prove a 
miserable failure. I am not sufficiently learned to 
know whether this explanation has ever before been 
given ; but whether it has or not will not affect its 
soundness, nor alter its importance if it be sound. 
And it is the only one I have seen, I think, which a 
simple-minded reader of the Bible is able at once 
clearly to understand, and thoroughly test for himself. 
Let me only add, in conclusion, that it beautifully 
harmonises with the character and history of Him — 
the blessed Eedeemer of men — to whom it relates. 
His manner has always been to veil his glory in order 
to the revelation of his grace — in order that men 
might experience first his wonderful condescension and 
grace, and so have full confidence in him ; and then 
to reveal his majesty and glorious name, to them 
that believed in him, afterwards. In former ages 
He concealed His Divine glory under the angelic 
form ; in the fulness of the time, He veiled it in 
human flesh ; but afterwards He was declared to be 
the Son of God with power ; and now, by all who 
believe, He is seen and known to be, "the Alpha and 
the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and 
the last," " God over all, blessed for ever." 



164 The Pentateuch Vindicated. 

And this explanation also agrees with the whole 
method of Divine providence and grace to sinful man; 
for it suits the nature and condition of man. For 
man, the sinner, to have close intercourse, at first, 
with the unveiled, the awful Majesty of heaven and 
earth — with the Eternal and Incomprehensible Deity, 
known as such, is impossible. His " terror would 
make man afraid" — His "unsufTerable" majesty would 
overwhelm and destroy man's frail and imperfect 
nature — His holiness and wrath against sin, would 
consume man's spirit. But He comes to man with 
His proposals of amity, and promises of good, and 
displays of love, in His representative — that repre- 
sentative who, though one with Him in nature, is 
able to conceal his glory, and tabernacle with man on 
earth. And then, when He has gained man's heart, 
and bound him to Himself by a " perpetual covenant 
which shall not be forgotten," He strengthens him, 
by His spirit, "with all might in the inner man," that 
he may come boldly to that throne on which both 
the Eternal Father and the Eternal Son sit, and may 
have free, full, and unhampered fellowship both 
"with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ." 
Then is man "filled with all the fulness of God," and 
secured in the enjoyment of holy happiness in God 
with Christ for ever and ever. 



A P P EN DIX. 



A. 

The Exodus in the Fourth Generation, and the 
Families of Dan and Levi, tyc. 

Bishop Colenso, however unmindful of the promises of 
God to Abraham concerning the great multiplication of 
his descendants, lays great stress upon the intimation in 
Gen. xv. 16, as to the time of their return to Canaan : " But 
in the fourth generation they shall come hither again : for 
the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full." This is the 
foundation of all his calculations as to the numbers of the 
Israelites at the Exodus, and at the entrance into Canaan. 
He interprets the word generation here as meaning descent 
from father to son, and rigidly insists on all the families of 
Israel having, during their sojournings in Egypt and the 
wilderness, passed through only four descents. Now there 
can be no doubt that this is often the meaning of the word 
Dor ; and in this meaning the intimation made to Abra- 
ham was sufficiently fulfilled by the fact that some men of 
the fourth descent from those who went down to Egypt, 
entered into Canaan with Joshua, as for instance Eleazar, 
who was of the fourth descent from Kohath the son of Levi, 
and others. But the word is used also in various other senses, 
as age, class, and the period of an ordinary lifetime, or the 



166 Appendix. A. 

persons living during that period — a man's contempor- 
aries. It is used in the first of these senses in the expres- 
sion "from generation to generation.'''' It is used in the 
second in the phrase, " the generation of the righteous ," and 
such like. And it is used in the third sense, when the 
generation of some individual is spoken of ; as in Exod. i. 
6, " Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that genera- 
tion" i. e., the contemporaries of Joseph in Egypt ; Isa. 
liii. 8, " Who shall declare his generation?''' 1 i.e., the con- 
temporaries of Messiah (Brown, Booihroyd, Henderson, &c.) ; 
Mat. xxiv. 34, " This generation shall not pass away till all 
these things be fulfilled," i.e., the men then living, or the 
contemporaries of Christ. (See also Gen. vii. 1 ; Judges 
ii. 10 ; Psalm xii. 7, &c.) 

In the intimation made to Abraham, the word is 
understood by some in the first sense, as meaning an 
age, or the period of a hundred years, and the verse is 
regarded as repeating what is said in the 13th verse of 
the chapter, "Thy seed shall be a stranger in a land 
that is not theirs, and shall serve them ; and they shall 
afilict them four hundred years." But it seems more 
natural to consider the word in the last sense, and thus 
understand the promise, " In the fourth life-time'''' — the 
fourth period of an ordinary life, " they shall come hither 
again." This period in Moses' time was reckoned seventy 
years, Ps. xc. 10, " The days of our years are threescore 
years and ten." And this accordingly was the precise 
period which Joseph lived in Egypt, referred to in Exod. 
i. 6 ; and the period also which elapsed between the birth 
of Christ and the destruction of Jerusalem, referred to in 
Mat. xxiv. 34. Taking, then, seventy years as the measure 
of the generations referred to in Gen. xv. 16, the promise 
was accurately fulfilled. For the third generation or 



Appendix. A. 167 

period of seventy years, from the going down to Egypt, 
expired five years before the Exodus ; and it was " in the 
fourth generation" that Israel entered into Canaan. 

But how many descents the families of Israel may have 
gone through in that time, who can tell ? We have no- 
thing to guide us safely in estimating their number, and it 
is mere presumption to attempt to do so. Judah married 
at twenty ; his sons Er and Onan married at a less age, 
and would, if they had lived, have had children before the 
migration. Indeed, Pharez was in one sense, as we have 
seen (Lect. 4), their son, and Judah's grandson, thus giv- 
ing two descents in less than forty-two, say thirty-nine, 
years. Now, at the same rate, the thirteenth generation or 
descent from Judah would have come out of Egypt, and 
the fifteenth have entered into Canaan. Asher stood in 
nearly the same position with Judah. He must have been 
about forty at the going down to Egypt, and he had 
grandchildren then, Heber and Malchiel (Gen. xlvi. 17). 
At the same rate, the thirteenth generation of his descend- 
ants would be born at the time of the Exodus, and the 
fifteenth at that of the entrance into Canaan. Joseph, too, 
was not far behind his brothers in this respect. Before he 
died, he " saw Ephraim's children of the third (his own of 
the fourth) descent. At the same rate, the ninth genera- 
tion would be born before the Exodus, and the tenth 
long before the entrance into Canaan. 

But what useful purposes can these calculations serve ? 
They are mere hypotheses, and can tell us nothing as to 
the facts. And the same holds true of the number of chil- 
dren the different patriarchs had. Dan had but one son at 
the migration, and, so far as the record informs us, he 
had no more children. Well, at the same rate, however 
many descents had intervened, he would have had but one 



168 Appendix. A. 

son of the same descent at the Exodus, and no more at 
the entrance into Canaan. But the record tells us also 
that he had at the Exodus 62,700 grown-up sons ; and at 
the entrance into Canaan, 64,400. And if we accept its 
statement in the one case, why not in the others? We 
have as good authority for believing that he had 62,700 
descendants at the Exodus, as that he had but one son at 
the migration. Are these numbers incredible ? According 
to Bishop Colenso they are ; but according to Christian 
faith and common sense, they are not. The Bishop says, 
" In order to have had this number born to him, we must 
suppose that Dan's one son, and each of his sons and grand- 
sons must have had about eighty children of both sexes." 
Why they must have been of both sexes he has not conde- 
scended to explain. But if we suppose that Dan's one son 
had, by the time of the Exodus, not only "sons and grand- 
sons," but descendants of the tenth descent, then he and 
his children would, throughout these descents, have re- 
quired to multiply at a less average rate than three and 
a-half sons each, to have 62,700 sons upwards of twenty 
years of age. Even in eight descents (of twenty-seven 
years each) the Danites would have reached this number 
of adult men, at little more than Bishop Colenso's chosen 
rate of four and a-half sons each. And what is incredible, 
then, in the number of the Danites, even though the de- 
scendants of Dan's one son were nearly double those of 
Benjamin's ten ? At Benjamin's rate, Dan's one son (sup- 
posing nine generations of twenty-four years each) would, 
at the Exodus, have had more than a thousand millions of 
male descendants. 

But though the record gives only one son to Dan at the 
time of the going down to Egypt, and therefore makes only 
one family of Danites at the Exodus, that does not forbid 



Appendix. A. 169 

Dan's having had more sons or daughters in Egypt. He 
would then be probably forty-one or forty -two, and might 
have many sons and daughters. As it seems to have been 
a rule in Israel that the number of chief families should 
never be more nor less than seventy, in memory of the 
seventy names at the migration, these younger children of 
Dan would not be admitted among the fathers of families, 
but would be reckoned as belonging to that of their eldest 
brother ; according to the principle, laid down by Jacob 
when he adopted and blessed the sons of Joseph. Gen. 
xlviii. 5, 6, " Thy two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, which 
were born unto thee in the land of Egypt before I came 
unto thee into Egypt, are mine ; as Reuben and Simeon, 
they shall be mine. And thy issue, which thou begettest 
after them, shall be thine, and shall be called after the 
name of their brethren.' 1 ' 1 So Dan's issue, which he begat 
after the migration to Egypt, would be called after the 
name of their brother. And, for anything we know, he 
might ultimately have as many, or even more sons than 
even Benjamin. 

The same principles apply to the families and the num- 
bers of the Levites. Bishop Colenso reduces their number 
at the first census to 44 instead of 8580, as they are stated 
to have been in Num. iv. 48. We cannot enter into the 
examination of the reasonings by which he does so; but 
the following considerations are sufficient to overturn 
them : — " Levi was forty-three years old at the migration 
to Egypt, when he had already three sons — Gershon, Ko- 
hath, and Merari, and no daughter, But from his birth 
to that of Moses (his grandson by the mother's side), are 
178 years, which must be shared between Levi's age at the 
birth of Jochebed (the mother of Moses) and that of 
Jochebed at the birth of Moses. If the latter were sixty- 



170 Appendix. A. 

five years, the former will be 113 (i.e., Levi would have a 
daughter seventy years after the migration.) Is it then at 
all probable that he had three sons and no daughters at 
forty-three — no son or daughter for seventy years, and 
then one daughter at the close of that long interval ? All 
probability seems to he the other way, — viz., that both 
sons and daughters were born to him during the earlier 
part of these seventy years. Their absence in the list (of 
the sons or families of Levi) is no objection, because the 
words of Jacob, quoted above, furnish a distinct key to the 
genealogical reckoning. Any later -born sons of Levi, and 
any sons-in-law from the household who might marry 
elder sisters of Jochebed, would be ranked under one of the 
three ' heads of the fathers of the Levites ' — Gershon, Ko- 
hath, and Merari." — Birk's l - Exodus of Israel" p. 151. 

The very same process might, and naturally would, be 
exemplified in the subsequent descents of the Levites ; but 
it is unnecessary to enter into the detailed results. As was 
remarked in Lecture 4th, the principles on which the Jew- 
ish genealogical tables were constructed are both obscure 
and intricate, and for us to challenge the plain statements 
of the history because we cannot now fully understand 
these principles, or to conclude that the phrase the " heads 
of the fathers of the Levites according to their families" 
(Exod. vi. 25), means all the members of these families, is 
mere puerility or gross presumption. 

It is a remarkable circumstance, that while the average 
number of each of the other tribes of Israel, both at the 
Exodus from Egypt, and the entrance into Canaan, was 
more than 50,000 men above twenty years of age, the num- 
ber of the Levites was only 22,000 at the one census, and 
23,000 at the other, and these of all ages, from a month old 
and upwards: making the number of the Levites much 



Appendix. B. 171 

less than a third of the average number of the other tribes. 
How is this to be accounted for ? It is impossible to tell, 
unless we should suppose, either that, by later marriages, 
the Levites had fallen a generation or two behind their 
brethren, or that by avoiding polygamy, they had been 
less prolific. Both of these suppositions seem to receive 
some countenance from Scripture : the one from the fact 
that the leading families of the Levites passed through only 
four or five generations in more than 250 years ; and the 
other from the terms in which the prophet Malachi con- 
demns the priests and Levites of his day in contrast with 
those of early times. (Mai. ii. 4-16). It would be a dis- 
couragement of polygamy that the tribe chosen for the ser- 
vice of religion should have shunned the practice of it ; 
and there would also be, in that case, a beautiful agree- 
ment between the number of the Levites and the number 
of the first-born for whom they were substituted. All the 
"godly seed" of Levi, and all the legitimate "first-born" 
of Israel, "from a month old and upward," were, at the 
time of the substitution, almost precisely equal. (Num. 
iii. 39, 43. 



B. 

The Number of the Priests and their Duties, tyc. 

No chapters of Bishop Col^nso's volume, perhaps, are 
more characterised by ignorance, puerility, or apparent 
disingenuousness, than those which relate to the number 
of the priests, their duties, and the provision made for them 
"in the wilderness." We cannot enter minutely into 
his objections, or answer them individually. The fol- 



1 72 Appendix. B. 

lowing considerations are sufficient to show their ground- 



1st. The Levitical laws, though given in the wilderness, 
were not intended to come into full operation there. This 
is obvious from such passages as these, Num. xv. 2 ; Deut. 
iv. 5, 14 ; v. 31 ; xii. 8, 9 : all indicating that the Leviti- 
cal system was to come into full operation only when the 
Israelites had come to " their rest and to the inheritance 
which the Lord their God was about to give them" — " the 
land whither they were going to possess it." 

Accordingly, when the law was given, and the Taber- 
nacle set up, they had the prospect of entering in a few 
months into Canaan ; and it was only in consequence of 
their rebellion at Kadesh that this prospect was not ful- 
filled : the suspension of the promise, of course, leading 
to a corresponding suspension of the observance of the 
Levitical laws. 

2d. In point of fact, the Levitical laws generally were 
not, and could not be, observed in the wilderness. One 
obstacle was that the Tabernacle and the Altar were fre- 
quently being removed from place to place — this render- 
ing, for the time, sacrifice impossible. Another obstacle 
was the neglect of circumcision, which of course entailed, 
necessarily, the neglect of all the other parts of the law 
in the case of the uncircumcised. And Moses expressly 
intimates that in the wilderness little or no observance of 
the law took place, Deut. xii. 8. Although the term the 
Camp is used in some of the laws, it does not follow that 
the whole system was made for, and was observed in, the 
wilderness. That was the present name for the holy place, 
the dwelling of the holy people, and applied to the holy 
city afterwards. Hence the language of the Apostle : Heb. 
xiii. 13, 14, " Let us go forth therefore to him without the 



Appendix. B. 1 73 

camp, bearing his reproach ; for here we have no continu- 
ing city:" where camp and city plainly mean the same 
thing. 

3d. In whatever work the priests had to perform in the 
wilderness, at the time of the second passover, for instance, 
they had the assistance of more than 8000 Levites, who 
were consecrated for the very purpose (Num. vii. 6-21), 
" I have taken the Levites," said God, "for all the first- 
born of the children of Israel. And I have given the 
Levites as a gift to Aaron and his sons, to do the service of 
the children of Israel, in the tabernacle of the congrega- 
tion." Bishop Colenso (apparently with the design of 
excluding this service of the Levites), after stating that the 
priests were only three, Aaron and his sons, quotes the 
language, "Aaron and his sons keeping the charge of the 
sanctuary, for the charge of the children of Israel; and 
the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death." (Num. 
iii. 10, 38.) But he has not quoted or noticed the similar 
language which shows that the Levites were not "stran- 
gers" in the sense there meant, but were bound by their 
very office to " come nigh." " When the tabernacle setteth 
forward, the Levites shall take it down ; and when the 
tabernacle is pitched, the Levites shall set it up ; and the 
stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death," (Num. i. 
51). This partial and improper way of quoting and inter- 
preting Scripture, which is only to be recognised by care- 
ful examination (for it is cunningly concealed), is one of 
the worst and most painful features of the Bishop's book. 
And to this may be added his presumptuous casting off, 
save when they supply materials for challenging the Pen- 
tateuch, the authority of the two books of Chronicles. 



174 Appendix. C. 

a 

Moses and Joshua addressing all Israel. 

Bishop Colenso, in bringing under one objection the 
addresses of Moses to all Israel on the plains of Moab 
(Deut. i. 1 ; v 1), and the reading of the blessings and 
curses of the Law, in the days of Joshua, at Gerizim and 
Ebal (Josh. viii. 30-35), has unquestionably blended to- 
gether two things of exceedingly different character. The 
one was doubtless intended chiefly for the instruction and 
warning of the Israelites. It was a work which would 
occupy many days, and which would best be performed by 
Moses in the representative assembly which stood for all 
Israel (See Led. 3); and it is simply absurd to suppose 
that all the people, "with the women and children" (as 
the Bishop evidently wishes it to be understood), were 
gathered together to hear the whole book of Deuteronomy 
recited to them. Besides, vast bodies of the " 600,000 
warriors " would then be engaged in warlike expeditions, 
and though all who pleased might be present, the assem- 
blies probably would not amount to more than could 
easily hear the great and good lawgiver giving his parting 
counsels and warnings — " his eye being yet undimmed, 
and his natural force unabated." Accordingly we have, in 
Deut. xxix. 10-15, an intimation which naturally implies, 
that while all were present virtually or representatively, 
all were not present literally. " Neither with you only do 
I make this covenant and this oath ; but with him that 
standeth here with us this day, before the Lord our God, 
and also with him that is not here with us this day." 

The other event, again, viz., the reading of the blessings 



Appendix. G. J 75 

and curses in the days of Joshua, might properly be 
described as a great solemnity, designed rather to impress 
the imagination and fill the memory of the beholders, 
than to give instruction. Tt was a grand review of the 
nation, and a renewal of the covenant of Sinai, made 
probably before the great body of the people was dis- 
persed over the country to their various localities. It 
had been fore-appointed by Moses, and all necessary 
directions had been given as to the manner in which 
the appointment should be fulfilled (Deut. xxvii. 1-26). 
The people would be well prepared for it, being in- 
structed beforehand as to the whole proceeding, so that 
probably little would depend upon their hearing dis- 
tinctly the voice of the readers — for it was not Joshua 
himself, but the priests, the Levites, that were to read 
the law, and charge the people to obey it. Besides, 
stones were to be set up, with the law inscribed on 
them, that the people might read as well as hear. It 
is impossible, indeed, to say precisely what was written on 
these stones, or for what purpose they were set up. And 
it is equally impossible to say what " the words of the law, 
the blessings and the cursings," were which were read to 
the people. But supposing the stones to have contained 
a summary of what was read, and to have been set up in 
various places all along the declivities of the mountains, 
we can easily perceive how the whole assembly would be 
prepared to give intelligently its loud and sublime ' ' Amen," 
like " the sound of many waters," to each blessing and 
cursing, as soon as it was read. 

These amens, in all probability, constituted the chief 
element, the essence and grandeur of the event. " The 
Mishna informs us that they were given alternately 
to the blessing and the curse : the priest turning first 



176 Appendix. C. 

towards Gerizim said, 'Blessed be the man that maketh 
not any graven image,' &c. ; and having received the 
response, he then turned towards Ebal and said, ' Cursed 
be the man who maketh a graven image,' &c. ; and so 
on of the rest." And if this was the manner of pro- 
cedure, "it is impossible to conceive a ceremony more 
simply and yet solemnly grand" (Pict. Bible), while at 
the same time nothing of the kind could be conceived 
more easily accomplished — provided always we do not con- 
sider it necessary to suppose that " all that Moses com- 
manded Joshua to read before all the congregation of 
Israel, with the women and the little ones," was the 
whole of the laws of Moses, or even the whole of the book 
of Deuteronomy. This and other things on which Bishop 
Colenso insists as necessary to " the literal accuracy of the 
Scripture narrative " are unworthy of a moment's regard. 

The following description of the whole transaction and 
scene, from Kitto's Pictorial Palestine, may be of use to 
the reader :— " It is difficult for the mind of man to con- 
ceive a ceremonial more truly grand than that whereby 
the far-seeing Legislator had provided that the people 
should once more, before they took possession of their 
inheritance, declare their solemn acceptance of those insti- 
tutions which had been given to them, and bindingly 
oblige them so to adhere to them. And if Moses, who 
was never himself in the promised land, had surveyed 
its whole extent, or the extent of the whole world, for 
a site most fitting for this great transaction, one could 
not have been found more appropriate than the twin 
mounts — the fair and fertile Gerizim, and the blasted 
Ebal, with the long, narrow, and beautiful valley by which 
they are separated. Here, in the first instance, were set up 
the large stones, which being covered with plaster, after 



Appendix. D. 177 

the Egyptian fashion, were written over ' very plainly ' 
with the principles of the law, that the people there 
assembled might be fully aware of that to which they 
were about to declare their obedience. Their sacrifices 
were offered upon a large altar, built upon Mount Ebal, of 
unhewn stone, according to the law. The ark, attended 
by priests, remained in the valley below, while on each 
side, up either mountain, stood the thousands of Israel, 
none being wanting, from the chiefs, the judges, and the 
Levites, to the women, the children, and the stranger. 
"All were there.* In that vast audience, six tribes, 
Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali, stood 
upon the barren Ebal, to pronounce the curses of the law 
upon the wrong-doer and the disobedient ; and six, Simeon, 
Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin, upon the 
pleasant Gerizim, to pronounce its blessings upon the well- 
doer and the obedient. And as each clause of cursing or 
of blessing was pronounced, there rose, with one vast 
rushing voice from the living hills, the AMEN, ' So be it,' 
by which that vast multitude declared their assent to the 
announced conditions." 



D. 

The Family of Judah, and Chief Families of Israel. 

In his second volume, Bishop Colenso acknowledges 
the omission of "were" in the sentence referred to in 
the fourth lecture (p. 110), and thus confirms our remarks 

* This is hardly correct, for only a small portion of the tribes of Reuben, 
Gad, and the half of Manasseh had crossed the Jordan, and many belong- 
ing to the other tribes might be necessarily absent likewise. 
M 



178 Appendix. D. 

about his changing the construction. But he still holds 
to his objection, and endeavours to mystify the ques- 
tion involved by asking, Why the two grandsons of 
Asher are mentioned in the list, (Gen. xlvi. 17) ? The 
answer is easily given, and tends to support our solu- 
tion of the difficulty in the case of Hezron and Hamul. 
1st. These grandsons of Asher are not introduced in the 
same way as those of Judah. They are not mentioned 
parenthetically, but as really being among those who 
went down to Egypt with Jacob. 2d. There is no diffi- 
culty in supposing them to have been born in Canaan. 
Asher, their grandfather, was only a year or two younger 
than Judah, and might easily have grandchildren at 
the time of the migration ; for had Er or Onan lived and 
had children, Judah himself would then have had grand- 
children six or seven years old. But Judah could not 
have grandchildren by his son Pharez, who was himself 
then only three or four years old. Pharez, indeed, as we 
have seen, was both a son and grandson of Judah ; but 
there was no such peculiarity in the family of Asher. It 
may be added, as confirmatory of another remark we 
have made, that these grandchildren of Asher are seen, 
from Num. xxvi., to have been founders of chief families in 
Israel, as all were whose names went down to Egypt — with, 
at least, the exception of a few names which, during the 
interval between the going down to Egypt, and the census 
taken on the plains of Moab (Num. xxvi) had become ex- 
tinct, and been " blotted out." 

It would be a somewhat profitable exercise for an ac- 
curate biblical student to endeavour to make out from 
Scripture a complete list of the "families" or clans 
— the larger divisions of the tribes — of Israel, on the 
supposition mentioned in the lecture, and apparently sound, 



Appendix. D. 



179 



that their number was always preserved the same (70) as 
that of the names at the going down to Egypt. There 
are difficulties to be encountered in doing this — chiefly in 
the way of showing what families were constituted to stand 
for the names of Jacob himself, his daughter Dinah, and 
his grand-daughter Serah, and also to supply the place of 
those names which had in the interval become extinct. 
No fewer than twelve of these substituted families seem to 
have been taken from the descendants of Joseph — his two 
sons having been raised to be the heads of tribes. Five or 
six were constituted fromamong the Levites, and so of others. 
(See Birk's Exod. of Israel) . A list of the families spoken of 
in Num. xxvi., to the number of fifty-seven, will be found 
in the Notes to Bagster's Comprehensive Bible. 

The following is the summation of the "names" that 
went down to Egypt with Jacob, as given in Gen. xlvi. : — 



Jacob's eleven sons and one daughter, 


12 


Beuben's sons, 


4 


Simeon's sons, 


6 


Levi's sons, 


3 


Judah's sons (including Er and Onan), 


5 


Issachar's sons, .... 


4 


Zebulun's sons, . 


3 


Gad's sons, 


7 


Asher's sons, daughter, and grandsons, 


7 


Dan's son, 


1 


Naphtali's sons, .... 


4 


Benjamin's sons, .... 


10 



The number that went down with Jacob, 66 

Then adding Jacob, Joseph, and his two sons, 4 



The whole family of Jacob, not including wives, 70 



180 Appendix. E. 

It is worthy of notice, that in the Acts of the Apostles 
(chap. vii. 14), Stephen makes the whole kindred of Jacob 
that went down to Egypt to be seventy-five persons. This 
number, doubtless, excludes Er and Onan, and includes the 
wives of Jacob's sons who were alive, z*.e., ten: for if we 
take Er and Onan from the sixty-six, and add Jacob him- 
self, then the numbers are 66—2 + 1 + 10= 75. And this 
agrees with the history so far as it guides us ; for of the 
eleven sons' wives we read only of the death of Judah's. — 
(Gen. xxxviii. 12). 



E. 

The Bishop's Theory as to the Origin of the 

Pentateuch. 

The Bishop of Natal, we suspect, in undertaking to 
show, in this third volume, how the books of Moses came 
into existence, on his own theory, has undertaken a task 
too great even for his strength and genius. He says, 
virtually, that "if we will lay aside our own modern no- 
tions (and take his, of course) of what Samuel ought to 
have been, and ought to have done," we will easily under- 
stand the matter. We suspect we will require also to lay 
aside our modern notions of what the Israelitish nation has 
always been ; and not only so, but of what human nature 
in all its families is, and has been, — and of what reason is, 
and common sense, and a great many other things, on 
which, if he be right, ice have all been egregiously wrong. 
Let us look at the work he proposes to accomplish in his 
third volume. 

There are plainly only two ways in which we can con- 



Appendix. E. 181 

ceive the books of Moses — containing as they do not 
only a history, but a code of civil and religious laws, — 
could have been, after the days of Samuel, imposed upon 
the Jewish nation. Either the civil and religious system 
they were designed to support must have been in existence 
previously, and Samuel's purpose in writing the Penta- 
teuch would be simply to give an account of its origin, 
and of the reasons why the laws and ordinances of that sys- 
tem ought to be observed ; or, the Pentateuch, written by 
him and his disciples, must have been designed to originate 
the system, as well as to give reasons for it, and to impose it 
for the first time on the Jews. Now on the first of these 
hypotheses what must the Bishop do ? 

Plainly, he must first of all account for the origin of the 
Jewish system before the days of Samuel. How did so 
peculiar and artificial a ritual (to speak only of the religi- 
ous part of the system) come into being ? If Samuel was 
inspired, and has given in the Pentateuch a true account 
of its origin, so that, after all, the book, though not 
" Mosaic," is " Divine," and the religious system taught 
in it, both "Mosaic and Divine," then (as we have 
already said) the Pentateuch is only a more wonderful 
book than if Moses had written it, and all that Bishop 
Colenso says of it as u not historically true" must fall to 
the ground. But if Samuel and his fellows were not in- 
spired, and have not given a true account of the origin of 
the Jewish law, then Bishop Colenso has two other things 
to do : he must show first wlien and how that law, with 
all its strange, unnatural, unmeaning, and most oppressive 
ritual originated, and came to be observed by the Jews ; 
and next, how a false account of its origin came afterwards 
to be received by them as true. To suppose the Levitical 
system in existence before the Pentateuch, only shifts the 



182 Appendix. E. 

question as to the origin of the system to an earlier time; it 
does not account for that origin. Bishop Colenso, therefore, 
if he choose this alternative, must account rationally for all 
its rites and ceremonies. He must tell us lioic, and \chen, 
and wliy circumcision, for instance, came to be practised, 
the Sabbath and sabbatical year observed, the passover and 
the other festivals kept, and such unnatural, and unmean- 
ing, and excessively troublesome rites, as purification from 
defilement caused by contact with the dead — (a rite opposed 
to all the obvious dictates of nature, the tenderest affec- 
tions of the human heart, and to all social order and con- 
venience) — came to be introduced. The question here is 
not, How a simple and inexpensive, yet cruel and bloody 
religion like those of the Druids and the Hindoos might 
grow up? They can be accounted for as the offspring of a 
dark and guilty conscience, and of a depraved and devil- 
possessed heart. But here we have a religion to account 
for totally diverse from these, and from all that human nature 
ever taught — " a yoke of bondage" utterly intolerable, and 
yet without a single feature of cruelty, or impurity, or devil- 
ishness. The Jewish religion was irksome, severe, and in- 
tolerably burdensome only to its observers ; to all others, so 
far as it permitted connection with others, it was just and 
even merciful. It permitted no human sacrifices — no 
hecatombs of human captives to be immolated on its altars. 
It imposed itself by force on none but those who were born 
under its covenant and law ; and it taught, by all its moral 
precepts and influences, love to God and love to man as the 
end and essence of all religion. It was a severe, holy, 
mysterious system, having no root in ordinary human 
nature, — and if not divine, it is altogether unaccountable. 
But even supposing Bishop Colenso could, on his own 
theory, account for its existence before the days of Samuel, 



Appendix. E. 183 

how is lie to account for the reception of a forged history 
of its origin afterwards. Here another and almost equally 
formidable difficulty meets him. For he must show how 
Samuel and his coadjutors could persuade the Jewish 
people, not indeed to receive a new religion, but to be- 
lieve that they and their fathers had for generations 
been observing that religion for reasons which they had 
never before heard of. He must show how a proud and 
self-conceited and self-willed people could be brought 
to receive a forged Pentateuch, telling them that circum- 
cision was the sign of a covenant, — the passover the me- 
morial of a redemption, — the Sabbath a commemoration 
of a creation work, — and all their other observances in like 
manner connected with a past history, of which they had 
either never before heard, or never heard at least as con- 
nected with their national and traditional ceremonies. 
And we rather think that the Bishop will find it a some- 
what difficult task to show all this on rational principles, 
or so as to convince rational men. 

But Bishop Colenso seems inclined to adopt the other 
alternative, as to the origin of the Jewish law, and to under- 
take to show how Samuel and his fellows not only forged 
the Pentateuch, but also framed and imposed the law. He 
says : — 

"If we will lay aside our own modern notions of what 
Samuel ought to have been, and what he ought to have done, 
and merely regard him as a great statesman and lawgiver, 
imbued from his childhood with deep religious feelings, and 
having early awakened in him — we cannot doubt, by special 
Divine Inspiration — the strong conviction of the distinct per- 
sonal presence of the Living God, — if we think of him as 
anxiously striving to convey the momentous truth, with which 
his own spirit was quickened, to the young men of his school, 



184 Appendix. E. 

whom he had taken into closer intimacy with himself, and 
whom he hoped to influence for the permanent welfare of the 
whole community, — then the measures, which, it seems, he 
took for the purpose, will appear to be very natural, and 
quite undeserving to he styled an 'impudent fraud.' 

" It is well known that the authors of most of the great 
early legislations of antiquity, as of those which are attributed 
to Minos, Lycurgus, and Numa, being actuated by the purest 
desire for the welfare of their countrymen, sought to attach 
authority to their lessons and laws, by representing them 
as revealed supernaturally, or, at least, as divinely approved. 
Of course, as we have said, the notion that Samuel also 
adopted this plan, of referring the institutions which he wished 
to enforce, to the direct revelation of the Divine Being,— 
though he did not profess to have received them himself, but 
represented them as made of old to the fathers or leaders of 
the Hebrew people, to Abraham or Moses, — is quite at vari- 
ance with the ordinary notion of the Divine origin and 
infallible authority of this part of the Scriptures, and with 
the modern conceptions which are formed of the nature of 
inspiration and the proper aim and object of Scripture writers. 
But the results of our investigations compel us to the conclu- 
sion that either Samuel himself, or some other writer of 
that age, did adopt it." 

Now, on this supposition, the Bishop's task will only be- 
come more stupendous and difficult than before. He must 
show how Samuel and his disciples easily and speedily accom- 
plished what, on the orthodox view, God and Moses found it 
very difficult to accomplish, notwithstanding all the miracu- 
lous judgments and mercies of the One, and all the meekness, 
patience, power, and wisdom of the other. He must show 
how the Jewish people could be persuaded to receive a new 
religion (of the character of the Jewish religion) for the 
first time, as well as for reasons which they had never before 



Appendix. E. 185 

heard of ; and not only so, but persuaded to believe also 
that they and their fathers had been from time immemorial 
observing that religion when they had not. On this very- 
subject another bishop, — one of a different stamp from 
Bishop Colenso — has said, " Can any one suppose it 
possible that a book of statutes might be now forged, or 
could have been forged at any time, for England or Scot- 
land, and imposed upon the people for the only book of 
statutes that they and their fathers had ever known? 
Since the world began has there been a book of spurious 
statutes, and these, too, multifarious and burdensome, im- 
posed upon any people as the only statutes by which they 
and their fathers had been governed for ages ? Such a 
thing is impossible." (Bp. Gleig's Introd. to Stackhouse.) 
And it is more obviously impossible, also, when these 
statutes are of a religious character, and imply the setting- 
up of a new, complex, and mysterious worship, whether of 
a known or " unknown God." 

And this is not all. Bishop Colenso, in the hints he has 
given of the way in which, on Ms theory, the Pentateuch 
and the Jewish laws originated, talks glibly of many things 
which, on that theory, could have no existence. He 
says : — 

" When Samuel had once set the example of this mode of 
composing the early history of the Hebrew people, it was, of 
course, most easy and natural for his disciples in a later age 
to follow him, more especially if, as we may very well sup- 
pose, the unfinished manuscript was left in their hands by 
their dying master, with the permission, or even the injunc- 
tion, to complete and perfect it to the best of their power. 
The establishment of the Divine service at the tabernacle in 
David's time, and at the temple in Solomon's, would give oc- 
casion for additions to be made of a ceremonial and ritual- 



186 Appendix. E. 

istic character ; and, perhaps, for a succession of years, such 
accretions might grow to the original document in the hands 
of the priests. Yet is there no sign that the laws thus laid 
down were published for general information, and actually 
enforced by the hest of kings, or voluntarily obeyed by those 
kings themselves or by the most devout of their people. The 
Levitical laws seem rather to have served as a directory for 
the priests in the discharge of their duties in the temple," &c 

Now it is easy for him thus to take for granted the 
existence of the tabernacle, and the temple, and the tem- 
ple service, and the priests, and so on. But whence did 
they all come, and what were they, on his theory ? "We 
know all about them, and about their origin, on the sup- 
position that the Pentateuch is Mosaic and divine; but 
when " we lay aside our own notions " to take the Bishop 
of Ratal's, we know nothing either of their existence, or 
origin, or object. What was the tabernacle, on his theory? 
And whence came it ? Did it fall from heaven, like the 
image of Diana of the Ephesians ? or did it spring up in a 
night from the earth, like Jonah's gourd ? And whence 
were the priests that "served the tabernacle ? " According 
to " our own modern notions,"' the law created the priests; 
but according to Bishop Colenso's notions, the priests, like 
the tabernacle, existed before the law, and must have 
come into existence, and had their work prescribed in 
some other way ; and to establish his theory, he must tell 
us all about their origin, and history, and work. 

Especially, whence came Solomon's temple, the most 
costly, the most gorgeous, the most wonderful structure ever 
reared by human hands — if, indeed, it was reared by human 
hands ? If the Pentateuch is Mosaic and divine, we know 
again all about its origin and design ; and how David's piety, 
and Solomon's youthful zeal and great wealth, led to its erec- 



Appendix. E. 187 

tion, for the honour of God and the fulfilment of his com- 
mand given to Moses. But if the Pentateuch is neither 
Mosaic nor divine, and if it was not in existence " in the 
age of Samuel, David, or Solomon" — or if the Levitical 
laws were not then in full operation, "known, honoured, 
revered, obeyed,'''' we are necessarily all at sea as to the 
origin and object of Solomon's temple, — how the Jews could 
have been induced to bestow their labour in building it, and 
what was the nature of the service performed in it. Can it 
be that, after all, the Mohammedan notion is the true one, 
that Solomon built the temple by the aid of Genii, armies 
of whom he had at his command ? But even this notion 
allows that it was reared " in lieu of the tabernacle of 
Moses," and supposes, therefore, the truth of the Mosaic 
history, and the antiquity of the Mosaic law. We are at 
our wits' end, and must wait the Bishop of Natal's third 
volume to have all these, and a hundred other questions, 
solved by some algebraic or other process, of which this 
mathematical Bishop alone knows the method ! For cer- 
tainly it is not by the same reason that leads us to be- 
lieve that two and two make four that we can reach their 
solution. 

But to conclude, how singular — how marvellous — how 
almost sublime, is the self-sufficiency of this man of Natal ! 
What is the reason or common sense of mankind, that 
it should stand for a moment in the way of his theo- 
ries ? And he is at least consistent here : for having pro- 
nounced the knowledge of the Son of God erroneous, and 
His testimony a lie, he need not hesitate to set aside as 
foolish the reason and common sense of all nations and 
generations of men ! ! 



188 Appendix. F. 



The use of the name Jehovah in Genesis. 

Tn making some additional remarks on the use of the 
name Jehovah in Genesis, the author intermeddles not with 
the question of the origin of what are called the Elohistic 
and Jehovistic portions of that book ; such as Gen. i. — ii. 3, 
and Gen. ii. 3 — iii. 24. He has no doubt that these and 
other peculiarities of language in different parts of the 
book are capable of being explained in consistency with 
the unity and Mosaic authorship of the whole. The only 
question with which he concerns himself, at present, is, 
How can the use of the name Jehovah in Genesis be ex- 
plained consistently with the statement in Exodus vi. 3 ? 
And he wishes to answer this question so as to satisfy any 
intelligent and thoughtfid, though unlearned, reader of the 
Bible. For if he can do so, he will have removed what 
Bishop Colenso allows to be the very foundation and 
"pivot" of the whole argument of his second volume. 

In further supporting and illustrating the answer given 
in the text of the Fifth Lecture, the author would take the 
liberty of stating — 1st, The difficulty itself ; 2d, Some of 
the ways of removing the difficulty proposed by commen- 
tators ; and, 3d, The way now proposed, — in language sub- 
stantially the same as he employed, several years ago, when 
he had occasion to explain Exodus vi. 3 to his own con- 
gregation. 

"I. The difficulty — which is quite apparent: God 
here (Exod. vi. 3) says to Moses, ' I am Jehovah, and I 
appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by 
the name of God Almighty ; but by my name Jehovah 
was I not known to them.' Now, in the book of Genesis, 
we have this name Jehovah used as frequently as any other 



Appendix. F. 189 

name of God, or more so. And we have it too, not only 
as employed by the historian in his own narrative, but as 
employed by the patriarchs here mentioned, and others of 
their times and before their times, as a well-known name 
of God. Eve employs it, for instance, at the birth of Cain, 
saying (Gen. iv. 1), ' I have gotten a man from Jehovah.' 
Lamech employs it at the birth of Noah, saying (Gen. v. 
29), " This same shall comfort us concerning our work and 
toil of our hands, because of the ground which Jehovah 
hath cursed." And Noah employs it in the blessing of 
Shem, saying (Gen. ix. 26), " Blessed be Jehovah the God 
of Shem ; and Canaan shall be his servant." In like manner, 
through all the history of the patriarchs we find the name 
of constant occurrence. Abraham and Isaac and Jacob 
use it not only when praying to God, but also when speak- 
ing of God to their fellow-men ; and not only they but all 
around them, who had any intercourse with them, seem to 
have been equally well acquainted with it. We find it put 
into the mouths of Sarah, and Rebekah, and Rachel, and 
Leah. We find it used by Abraham's servant, and Laban, 
and Abimelech, king of Gerar, and others. Now, if the 
language of all these persons has been correctly reported 
by the historian, it is plain that the name Jehovah itself 
must have been known in the days of the patriarchs ; and 
not only so, but that it must have been known to them also 
as the name of their God, the only living and true God, 
the God in whom they believed, and whom they worshipped 
and feared. And what then is to be said of the assertion 
of the text, " I appeared to Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob 
by the name of God- Almighty ; but by my name Jehovah 
was I not known to them." The contradiction between 
this assertion and the conclusion which one must draw 
from the book of Genesis, appears to be as direct, as explicit, 



1 90 Appendix. F. 

and unquestionable as any contradiction can well be ; and 
how then is this contradiction to be removed, and the 
inspired volume shown to be in harmony with itself ? 

" II. To this I answer, that commentators have en- 
deavoured, in various ways, to remove the contradiction. 
Some have proposed to give the latter part of the verse 
an interrogative form, so as to reverse its meaning — 
thus, And was I not also known to them by my name 
Jehovah ? This question would mean that God was known 
to the patriarchs by the name Jehovah, and would thus 
make the statement of Exod. vi. 3 perfectly harmonious 
with the book of Genesis. But though a possible, this is a 
very unsatisfactory way of removing the difficulty. It is 
not a natural way, but destroys the natural and evidently 
designed antithesis between the two clauses of the verse, 
going far to divest both of them of any distinct or obvious 
meaning. 

" Again, it has been supposed by others that, as the book 
of Genesis was doubtless written after the time of tins 
communication to Moses, the name Jehovah is used by him 
in it by anticipation. That is to say, though the patri- 
archs did not know the name, Moses, who knew it, makes 
them speak as if they did. He speaks, and makes them 
speak of the Divine being from his own point of view, and 
not from theirs. Now this is a good and sufficient ex- 
planation of the matter, so far as Moses himself uses the 
name in his own narrative ; but it is no explanation at all 
so far as he puts it into the mouths of the patriarchs or 
others. It is rather but another way of saying that Moses 
does not report the language of the patriarchs correctly, 
and that therefore, so far as that language is concerned, 
his record is not true, and not divinely inspired. If Abra- 
ham did not know the name Jehovah as a name of the 



Appendix. F. 191 

Divine Being, it is perfectly certain that he never used it 
as Moses reports him to have done, in his address to the 
king of Sodom (Gen. xiv. 22), "I have lift mine hand 
unto Jehovah, the most high God, the possessor of heaven 
and earth." And so of other cases in which the name is 
used by the patriarchs and others. And thus the truth 
and inspiration of the writings of Moses would necessarily 
be brought into question. We could no longer, if this was 
true, confidently believe in them as the Word of God. 

" Other interpreters have supposed that it is not the name 
Jehovah itself, but the meaning of the name, that the 
patriarchs are here said not to have known. They knew 
the word, and that it was a name of God ; but they did 
not know the truth concerning God, which was designed 
to be conveyed by that word. More especially, it is said, 
they did not know God as the Being who alone is the 
living God, — or as the Being whose words are immut- 
able, and who brings to pass the things which He hath 
promised, — or the Being who is engaged in the develop- 
ment of salvation, and who manifests himself in it, and 
conducts it with absolute certainty to the desired result. 
Such a revelation of God, it is said, was reserved for the 
days of Moses and the Israelites in Egypt. But this 
very mystical way of explaining the difficulty is (if I 
understand it rightly) as little satisfactory as any. So 
far as the meaning of the name Jehovah is concerned, 
Abraham knew it, I have no doubt, as well as Moses, 
or any created mind could. We are told that, when he 
planted a grove in Beersheba, he called there on the 
name of Jehovah, the everlasting God. Here, I ap- 
prehend, you have an interpretation of the meaning of 
the name Jehovah, and doubtless of that in which Abra- 
ham understood it — the everlasting or eternal God — the 



192 Appendix. F. 

Almighty Being who was, and is, and is to come. And 
even if that name meant, as is said, the Being who 
alone is the living God, — or whose word is immutable, — 
or who reveals himself in the accomplishment of sal- 
vation, — it would be difficult to find any one who 
gave better evidence than "the father of the faithful," 
that he knew God in this way. Otherwise the apostle 
gives too high a colouring to the conduct and faith of 
Abraham, when he says (Eom. iv. 17-21) that " Abraham 
believed in God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth the 
things that be not as though they were. Who against 
hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of 
many nations, according to that which was spoken, So 
shall thy seed be. He staggered not at the promise of God 
through unbelief ; but was strong in faith, giving glory to 
God; and being fully persuaded that, what he had pro- 
mised, he was able also to perform." And again (Heb. xi. 
17-19) : "By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered 
up Isaac : accounting that God was able to raise him up 
even from the dead ; from whence also he received him in 
a figure." 

"III. Having thus stated some of the ways in which 
it has been proposed to remove the difficulty in the 
text, I shall now state, as briefly as possible, what I appre- 
hend to be the true way of doing so. And here two things 
are to be noticed, — 1st, That the two names of God spoken 
of in the text are those which were expressly mentioned in 
the two covenants referred to. In the covenant made with 
Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, as recorded in the 17th 
chapter of Genesis, the name which the Divine party cove- 
nanting took to himself was not Jehovah, but God Al- 
mighty (El-Shaddai); but in the covenant which was 
now about to be made with Israel at Sinai, the same Divine 



Appendix. F. 193 

party was to enter into it by the name Jehovah. Hence 
says he, in the sixth and seventh verses of this chapter, 
" "Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am Jehovah, 
and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the 
Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I 
will redeem you with a stretched-out arm, and with great 
judgments : and i" ivill take you to me for a people, and I 
will be to you a God: and ye shall know that I am Jeho- 
vah your God" &c. And hence also the decalogue was 
given in this name, and the words of Moses at the ratifica- 
tion of the covenant of Sinai were spoken in this name, 
and, in a word, all the sanctions and appointments of the 
old dispensation were founded on the fact or truth that 
Jehovah was the God and king of Israel. This remark 
goes some length to remove the difficulty of the text, by 
showing in what sense God was, and in what sense he 
was not, known to the patriarchs by his name Jehovah. It 
was not by this name that he made himself known to them 
as their covenant God, or entered into covenant with them. 
But the remark does not completely remove the difficulty, 
or satisfy all the exigencies of the case. For we find the 
patriarchs occasionally using the name Jehovah, apparently 
at least, as that of their covenant God ; and the question 
remains, therefore, if this were all that was meant in the 
statement of the text, how could they do so ? " 

"I go on to remark, — 2d, That the speaker here, I 
apprehend, was a different person of the Godhead from 
Him whom the patriarchs knew by the name Jehovah. — 
I merely announce this idea as apparently the only full 
and satisfactory solution of the difficulty before us. I can- 
not pretend, however, at present to demonstrate its sound- 
ness, which could only be done by a minute and laborious 
investigation of the use of the name Jehovah in Genesis. 

K 



194 Appendix?. F. 

The probability of its truth, however, is evident at first 
sight. We know that the same person of the Godhead who 
now spoke to Moses in Egypt — the Angel of the bush, who 
entered into covenant with Israel at Sinai — had entered 
into covenant with their fathers, as the representative of 
the invisible Jehovah, by the name God Almighty. He 
was the Divine person by whom all the providence and 
grace of God in past ages had been conducted. Now, if it 
could be shown that the patriarchs did not know the name 
Jehovah to belong to Him, personally considered, and that 
this was first revealed to Moses at the bush, — then plainly 
we would have a complete and satisfactory explanation of 
the words, " I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, by 
the name of God- Almighty, but by my name Jehovah was 
I not made known to them. ' ' At the same time we would see 
that this name Jehovah, though unrevealed, belonged to Him 
by right of nature. Though unknown it was not less His, 
and He might say of it (Exod. iii. 15), " This is my name 
for ever, and this is my memorial to all generations." 



The author is now prepared to enter into the investiga- 
tion, thus stated to be necessary, and to show that the idea 
above announced is both sound and satisfactory as an ex- 
planation of Exodus vi. 3. He has done so already to some 
extent in the lecture ; but the nature and limits of a public 
discourse did not allow him to do so fully ; and he would 
now therefore supplement what has been there said by a 
citation of the passages in Genesis in which the name 
Jehovah occurs in reported speech. 

Before doing so, however, it might have been desir- 
able to discuss the interesting but difficult question, 
Whether the patriarchs had any knowledge of the doc- 
trine of the Trinity T or at least of a plurality of persons 



Appendix. F. 195 

in the Godhead ? It has been denied that they had (Kurtz, 
O. Cov., vol. ii., p. 106) ; and it may be allowed that, so 
far as appears, they had no distinct or authoritative revela- 
tion of the doctrine. This doctrine, like that of the atone- 
ment, and that of " life and immortality," has been brought 
fully and clearly to light only by the gospel. But it may 
be doubted whether the patriarchs had not such a know- 
ledge of the Divine nature, and the Divine works, as may 
have led them to some conception of the doctrine in ques- 
tion. Abraham, for instance, could speak of the Divine 
Being as " Jehovah, the most high God, the possessor of 
heaven and earth" which titles obviously imply the eternity, 
immensity, invisibility, and incomprehensibility of the 
Divine nature. But he knew, at the same time, of a person 
who often appeared to men, to whom Divine names and 
honour and worship belonged, who exercised the power and 
authority of the supreme Being, being "the judge of all 
the earth," and before whom he felt himself to be "but 
dust and ashes," (Gen. xviii. 27). He necessarily thought 
of this visible person — this " angel of Jehovah," as a real, 
living, intelligent being and agent, distinct from the in- 
visible Jehovah, whom He represented, whose messages He 
bore, and whose counsels He performed. And the only 
question that remains seems to be, could he follow out 
these conceptions to the conclusion that the angel of Jeho- 
vah must be possessed of the same nature with Jehovah 
himself — "the same in substance, equal in power and 
glory?" Or was he left, through the dimness of his 
knowledge, and perhaps also the prevailing tendencies 
of the time, to think of the angel of Jehovah as a 
being of some inferior, though very exalted nature, 
to . whom, as His representative and agent, Jehovah 
had conveyed some of His own honour and glory? It 



196 Appendix. F. 

is perhaps impossible for us to answer this question ; but 
whatever answer were given to it, it would still remain 
perfectly credible that the patriarchs (without a distinct 
and explicit revelation on the point) did not know that the 
highest and most distinctive name of the Divine Being — 
the incommunicable name Jehovah — belonged to the angel 
of Jehovah ; and if they did not certainly know this, they 
could not and would not give it Him. It was a ''secret 
thing " in their day, the revelation of which was reserved 
for their children, in the days of Moses, when the angel 
himself revealed it, and made it sure for ever to all who 
are " of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all." 

But leaving this question, let us now consider in what 
manner the name Jehovah is used in Genesis — whether it 
is ever given in the reported speech of the patriarchs or 
others to the angel of Jehovah, " the visible God," who 
appeared to them, conversed with them, and entered into 
covenant with them, by the name El-Shaddai. The his- 
torian, in his own narratives, we have already seen, 
gives the name both to the invisible Jehovah, and to the 
visible angel of Jehovah ; and it is only the usage in 
reported speech that remains to be investigated; i. e., in 
the forty-nine instances in which it so occurs in all the 
book of Genesis. 

Now of these, nine occur in communications made to the 
patriarchs, either by God himself or by an angel from 
heaven. These are first worthy of our examination ; for 
if in any such communication the name Jehovah had been 
distinctly used of the angel of the covenant, then plainly, 
from the time of that communication, the patriarchs would 
have known that the name belonged to Him. He would 
henceforth have been known to them by that name. But 
in none of these instances is the name given to Him, or 



Appendix. F. 1 97 

any indication given that it belonged to Him. It is 
always used of the invisible God ; as will be seen by read- 
ing the passages, and reflecting on the circumstances in 
which the divine communications contained in them were 
made. They are the following : 

1st Class. 

1. Gen. xv. 7. "And he said unto him, I am Jehovah, 
that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this 
land to inherit it." This was said to Abraham when "the 
word of the Lord came to him in a vision," and would cer- 
tainly be understood by the patriarch as the voice of the 
invisible God — " the most high God — the possessor of hea- 
ven and earth." And it has, accordingly, generally been 
so explained by commentators. It gave no indication, 
therefore, that the name Jehovah belonged to any other. 

2. Gen. xvi. 11. "And the angel of Jehovah said unto 
her (Hagar), Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a 
son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because Jehovah 
hath heard thy afflictio7i." .Here the speech is that of the 
angel of Jehovah, but it is clear that in using the name 
Jehovah he does not speak of himself, but of Him whose 
angel he was. And accordingly, though Moses calls him 
Jehovah, Hagar does not ; she calls him (v. 13) El-Eoi, 
the visible God: "And she called the name of Jehovah 
that spake unto her, Thou God seest me (or, the visible 
God) ; for she said, Have I also here looked after him that 
seeth me; " or, Did I not see him here visible by me ? — 
(JBoothroyd''s Trans.} 

3. Gen. xviii. 13, 14. " And Jehovah said unto 
Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I bear 
a child, which am old? Is any thing too hard for Jeho- 
vah? At the time appointed I will return unto thee 



198 Appendix. F. 

according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son." 
Here again the speaker is the angel of Jehovah, the visible 
God, who partook of Abraham's hospitality, and sat and 
conversed with him under the tree ; but it is obvious, 
again, that in using the name Jehovah he was not under- 
stood by Abraham to be speaking of himself, but of the 
invisible God whom he represented. Accordingly, in all 
the conversation which follows, as in that going before, 
Abraham never addresses him by that name, but always 
by the title Adonai, my Lord ; which clearly certifies that 
Abraham did not know him to be Jehovah. And the 
same remark applies to the following two instances :— 

4, 5. Gen. xviii. 17-19. " And Jehovah said, Shall I 
hide from Abraham that thing which I do; seeing that Abra- 
ham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all 
the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him ? For I 
know him, that he will command his children and his house- 
hold after him, and they shall keep the way of Jehovah, 
to do justice and judgment ; that Jehovah may bring upon 
Abraham that which he hath spoken of him." 

6, 7. Gen. xix. 13. " For we will destroy this place, be- 
cause the cry of them is waxen great before the face 
of Jehovah, and Jehovah hath sent us to destroy it." 
This is the language of the two angels who came to 
Lot, in Sodom, before the destruction of the city. It 
can only be interpreted in accordance with the foregoing 
instances, as giving the name Jehovah to the invisible God. 
Accordingly Lot, when he afterwards addresses the Divine 
angel, whom the historian calls Jehovah, u the visible God," 
does not call him Jehovah, but Adonai (v. 18.) 

8. Gen. xxii. 15-17. " And the angel of Jehovah called 
unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, and said, By 
myself have I sworn, saith Jehovah ; for because thou hast 



Appendix. F. ■ 199 

done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only 
son; that in blessing I will bless thee" &c. Here the 
speaker is the angel, and he speaks also in the first 
person. But he does not speak his own words. The 
phrase, " saith Jehovah" implies that he speaks for 
another, and that other, the being whom Abraham had been 
wont to know by the name Jehovah. The prophets 
were accustomed to speak in the same way — not always 
using thus formally the above phrase, thus : "I have sworn 
by myself. The word is gone out of my mouth in right- 
eousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee 
shall bow, and every tongue shall swear." There was no 
more indication, therefore, that the name Jehovah belonged 
to the angel, than that this high honour and worship be- 
longed to the prophet. 

9. Gen. xxviii. 13. — "And, behold, Jehovah stood a bove 
it (the ladder) and said, I am Jehovah, the God of Abra- 
ham thy father, and the God of Isaac ; the land whereon 
thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed.'''' There 
can be no difficulty in seeing the application of the name 
Jehovah here. Besides that the communication was made 
in a dream, and not by a visible or outward manifestation 
of a Divine person, our blessed Lord has virtually inter- 
preted the dream to us (John i. 51), making the ladder a 
shadow of himself in his mediatorial office and relations, 
and of course, therefore, making the Divine person that 
was seen above it, not himself, but the Father — Him be- 
tween whom and sinful man he is the only mediator — to 
whom Jw is the only medium of access. 

It appears evident, then, that in all this class of pas- 
sages, in which the name Jehovah is used in Divine com- 
munications made to the patriarchs, or to others of 
their day, there is not a single instance in which it is 



200 Appendix. F. 

given to the angel of the covenant, the angel of the 
bush, who said to Moses, "J appeared to Abraham, and 
Isaac, and Jacob, by the name El-Shaddai, but by my name 
Jehovah was I not known to them.''' 1 

It is worthy of remark, however, that in some of these 
Divine communications, Jehovah calls himself the God of 
the patriarchs ; so that it need not surprise us that in their 
devotions and reported speeches, we find them using that 
name as the name of their God. Either on the ground of 
such communications as the above, from the invisible 
Jehovah himself, or on the understanding that the 
angel of the covenant, who called himself El Shaddai, 
was the representative and agent of Jehovah, they 
could plainly claim the latter as their God, though they 
did not know that the same name belonged to the former. 
This requires to be kept in mind in considering the fol- 
lowing class of passages, in which, in prayer to God, or 
other acts of devotion, the patriarchs and others use the 
name Jehovah. The number of such passages is nineteen ; 
and little more is necessary than to transcribe them, with- 
out comment : — 

2d Class. 

1. Gen. iv. 1. — "Eve conceived and bare Cain, and said, 
I have gotten a man from Jehovah." 

2. Gen. v. 29. — "He called his name Noah, saying, This 
same shall comfort us concerning our ivorJc and toil of our 
hands, because of the ground which Jehovah hath cursed." 

3. Gen. ix. 26. — "And he said, Blessed be Jehovah God 
of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant." 

4. 5. Gen. xv. 2, 8. — "And Abraham said, Lord Jehovah, 
rvhat wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward 
of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus V "And he said. 



Appendix. F. 201 

Lord Jehovah, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit 
(this land)?" 

6. Gen. xxii. 14. — "And Abraham called the name of 
that place Jehovah-Jireh, as it is said unto this day, In 
the mount of Jehovah it shall be seen.'''' 

The proper translation of the phrase Jehovah-Jireh is 
Jehovah will provide, the allusion being to the words of 
Abraham to Isaac (y. 8). And in like manner the pro- 
verb which had thence originated, and remained to the 
days of the historian, is to be understood in the same 
way; "In the mount of Jehovah it will be provided" — 
provision will be made. 

7, 8, 9, 10, 11. Gen. xxiv. 12, 27 (twice), 42, 44.— In 
all these passages Abraham's servant prays to or blesses 
"Jehovah, the God of his master Abraham," for direction 
in the choice of a wife for Isaac when he was sent to Me - 
sopotamia on this errand. In them all, therefore, the in- 
visible God, the hearer and answerer of prayer, is alone 
thought of and spoken of. 

12. Gen. xxvii. 27. — " And he came near and kissed him, 
and he (Isaac) smelled the smell of his (Jacob's) raiment, and 
said, See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which 
Jehovah hath blessed." 

13, 14. Gen. xxviii. 16, 20, 21. — "And Jacob awaked 
out of his sleep, and he said, Surely Jehovah is in this place, 
and I knew it not. And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God 
will be with me and keep me in this way that I go, and will 
give me bread to eat and raiment to put on, so that I come 
again to my father's house in peace, then shall Jehovah be 
my God." 

It is obvious that Jacob must be here understood to use 
the name Jehovah in the same application in which it had 
already been used, in the address of God to him ; and it 



202 Appendix. F. 

can hardly be doubted that this was the reason why he 
esteemed the place so " dreadful," and so nearly con- 
nected with heaven. It was " the most high God, the pos- 
sessor of heaven and earth," who had there spoken to him, 
and though the vision was not really objective, but 
entirely subjective, the feelings of the patriarch were 
natural, and his words expressive of these feelings intelli- 
gible and appropriate. It is probable that Jacob would 
not have been either so surprised or fearful had a -visible 
manifestation of the angel of Jehovah been made to him : 
and, at any rate, had he now given the name Jeliovdh to 
this angel, he would not have required to say to him after- 
wards (Gen. xxxii. 29), " Tell me, I pray thee, thy name." 
Jacob knew the personal name of the invisible and eternal 
God, but not of the visible angel of God. 

15, 16, 17. Gen. xxix. 32, 35 ; xxx. 24.— These pas- 
sages need not be transcribed. They are instances in 
which the wives of Jacob use the name Jehovah, when 
acknowledging and praising Him at the birth of their sons. 
We cannot doubt, then, that they used it in the same way 
as Eve did. And there is not the slightest indication that 
they employed it as the name of the angel of Jehovah, the 
angel of the covenant. 

18. Gen. xxxii. 9. — u And Jacob said, God of my 
father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, Jehovah, 
who saidst unto me, Return unto thy country and to thy 
kindred, and I will deal well with thee," &c. It was in a 
dream, as we learn from chap. xxxi. 2, 11, that Jehovah 
had said to Jacob, " Eeturn to thy country and kin- 
dred," &c, and though Jacob himself understood these 
words to have been conveyed by the ministry of the 
angel of God, he regards them plainly as the words 
of the invisible and eternal God himself, and now there- 



Appendix. F. 203 

fore he applies to Him in prayer. Had it been other- 
wise, Jacob could not have needed, the following night, to 
ask the angel's name. And all this is confirmed by the 
last instance, which occurs in the last and death-bed prayer 
of the same patriarch. 

19. Gen. xlix. 18. — / have waited for thy salvation, 
Jehovah. There can be no doubt to whom this prayer of 
the dying patriarch was addressed. And let it only be 
added here, that as in all these prayers and devotions the 
patriarchs and others spoke to, or of, the invisible, omni - 
present God, and gave him the name Jehovah, while they 
never used that name when speaking to " the visible God," 
the angel of God, there can be little doubt that when they 
employed the name in conversation with men, they thought 
only of the Being to whom they gave it in prayer. — This 
brings us then to the last class of passages, — viz., those in 
which the name Jehovah occurs, in the reported speech of 
the patriarchs and others to one another. 

3d Class. 

The passages of this class, which are twenty-one in 
number, it is unnecessary to transcribe. Some of them 
have already been noticed, others of them come under ex- 
planatory remarks which have already been made ; and 
there is not one of them which can be, or, so far as the 
author knows, has ever been, interpreted as giving the 
name Jehovah to the angel of God, who appeared to Moses 
at the bush, and used the language of Exod. vi. 3, u I am 
Jehovah, and I appeared to Abraham, and Isaac, and 
Jacob by the name of God Almighty, but by my name Jehovah 
was I not made known to them." The reader should exa- 
mine them for himself. They are : — Gen. xiv. 22 ; xvi. 2, 



20i Appendix. F. 

5 ; xix. 14 ; xxiv. 3, 7, 31, 35, 40, 48 (twice), 50, 51, 56 ; 
xxvi. 22, 28, 29; xxvii. 7 ; xxx. 27, 30 ; xxxi. 49. 

The proposed solution of the difficulty founded on Exod. 
vi. 3, then seems to be demonstrated ; and by it all theories 
founded on the supposed late introduction of the name 
Jehovah are swept away. They have no foundation. It 
may be added that this solution is in accordance with, and 
confirmatory of, the great pillar of the Christian faith — 
the doctrine of the supreme and eternal divinity of the 
Lord Jesus Christ. The manner, also, in which this doc- 
trine was revealed to the Old Testament Church, according 
to this solution, beautifully harmonizes with that in which 
the divinity of the man Christ Jesus was revealed to the 
New Testament Church. In the one case he revealed him- 
self first as an angel, and conversed with men ; in the other, 
he appeared as a man, and tabernacled on earth. In the 
one case, he trained the believing patriarchs and others to 
familiarity with him, confidence in him, and perfect reli- 
ance on his words as the angel of God, before he made 
himself fully known to them as God. And it was so also 
in the other case. The disciples of Jesus knew him first 
as the man with whom God was, and the prophet by 
whom God spake ; and they had perfect confidence in him, 
without fear, before he was revealed to them as one with 
the Father. Had they known him from the beginning to 
be " the Lord from heaven," " God over all," his presence 
would have been a terror to them ; but instead of this it 
was a protection and joy to them — sinful men though they 
were, and knew themselves to be — and the thought of his 
going away from them became their greatest trouble. 

But, as in the Old Testament age Christ revealed the 
fulness of his Divine glory before Old Testament Scripture 
began to be written, and to the first writer of Scripture, 



Appendix. F. 205 

namely Moses, — so, in the New Testament age, He revealed 
his true and supreme divinity to his apostles and disciples, 
and brought them thoroughly to understand and acknow- 
ledge it, before New Testament Scripture began to be 
written. On the night in which He was betrayed, He 
brought them to this conviction, John xvi. 29-31, — it was 
renewed and confirmed by His resurrection from the dead, 
John xx. 28 ; Rom. i. 4, — and it was established undeniably 
and for ever to their deepest consciousness and faith, by His 
ascension into heaven, and by the gifts and marvels of 
Pentecost, "The pillar and ground of the truth, and 
confessedly great is the mystery of godliness; God was 
manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, 
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4. Evidence from History for a Weekly Day of Rest and Worship. 

5. The Sabbath Defended against Opposing Arguments, Theories, and 

Schemes. 
<5. The Claims of the Sabbath Practically Enforced. 



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LETTERS TO AFFLICTED FRIENDS. 

By the late Eev. JOHN JAMESON, Methven. 



HEART RELIGION; 

OR, LIVING BELIEF IN THE TRUTH. 

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Author of " Christian Errors Infidel Arguments," "|The Unity of the 

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THE GOSPEL TO THE AFRICANS: 

A NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE AND LABOURS OF THE REV. 
WILLIAM JAMESON IN JAMAICA AND OLD CALABAR. 

By the Eev. ALEXANDEE EOBB, M.A., 

Missionary, Old Calabar. 

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LIFE FOR GOD; 

EXEMPLIFIED IN THE CHARACTER AND CAREER OF 
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THE CLOSER WALK; 

OR, THE BELIEVER'S SANCTIFICATION. 

By HENBY DARLING, D.D. 

With Ereface by the Rev. George Smeaton, Erofessor of 

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